This book examines the experiences of migrant peasant workers in China who care for parents diagnosed with cancer and explores to what extent contextual changes after the economic reform initiated in 1978 affected practices and experiences of caring. In his own attempt to develop a localized methodology, the author considers identifying similarities between Chinese philosophies and Foucault's theories as the key step for localizing Foucauldian discourse analysis. Three similarities are located and articulated with regard to filial care. Firstly, the complexity of discursive relations identified by Foucault resembles the complicated Chinese notion of the relationality of the self. Secondly, both sides have a tendency to look back to ancient times for solutions and to critique the notion of 'progress' in modernity. For Foucault, the way to attain freedom or agency is through technologies of the self, such as speaking truth (parrhesia). Lastly, both value action and practice in their theories. The book then analyzes, through this localized methodological approach, statements made by migrant peasant workers to take readers through their discursive mechanisms to construct filial piety in relation to their subjective care experiences.

The contributors to this book present case studies of elder care in China and India, and draw comparisons between the two - illuminating some of the key issues facing the two largest Asian countries as they develop rapidly. Caring for the elderly is a major challenge for all countries, and one which is of acute concern for rapidly developing economies. Development tends to run counter to long-established cultural norms of family-based caring and filial piety, even as it also tends to lead to longer life expectancy. Taking a range of methodological and conceptual approaches to understanding these challenges, the contributors present a multifaceted understanding of elder care issues in both India and China. They focus in particular on caregiving within families and at care homes - and the impacts these have on quality of life and the experience of caregiving for both caregivers and the aged themselves. An invaluable collection for scholars and students of gerontology and aging in Asia, that will also be of great interest to scholars with a broader interest in global trends in caregiving.

This book examines the experiences of migrant peasant workers in China who care for parents diagnosed with cancer and explores to what extent contextual changes after the economic reform initiated in 1978 affected practices and experiences of caring. In his own attempt to develop a localized methodology, the author considers identifying similarities between Chinese philosophies and Foucault's theories as the key step for localizing Foucauldian discourse analysis. Three similarities are located and articulated with regard to filial care. Firstly, the complexity of discursive relations identified by Foucault resembles the complicated Chinese notion of the relationality of the self. Secondly, both sides have a tendency to look back to ancient times for solutions and to critique the notion of 'progress' in modernity. For Foucault, the way to attain freedom or agency is through technologies of the self, such as speaking truth (parrhesia). Lastly, both value action and practice in their theories. The book then analyzes, through this localized methodological approach, statements made by migrant peasant workers to take readers through their discursive mechanisms to construct filial piety in relation to their subjective care experiences.