Lessons for Hong Kong's old people's homes in ancient China
Wee Kek Koon
Hongkongers were shocked by the recent scandal involving a care home for the elderly, where residents were left naked on an outdoor podium while they waited for staff to take them for a shower. While respect for and deference towards the elderly is ingrained in Chinese culture, abuse of senior citizens is a real problem in Hong Kong. Who can forget the stories of elderly people being abandoned in local nursing homes in the 1990s by families who had surreptitiously emigrated?
During the Jiajing reign period (1522-1566) of the Ming dynasty, regular checks were carried out by the government on homes for the elderly in the capital to ensure residents were being given meals and that the institutions were properly managed. Such checks, however, hint at occasional, or even frequent, breakdowns of the well-intentioned care system, a similar situation to that in present-day Hong Kong.