"Retirement itch" in China

The “Retirement Itch”, a new social group is mingling in the divorce filing rooms in Chinese cities. While divorce is no longer a huge taboo in China amid the huge social transformations in society, it is still undergoing lots of pressure in familial and social circles.

Nevertheless, the divorce rates are strongly increasing (4.4 million divorces in 2017) and the “Seven Year Itch” is a common expression for critical times in marriages. More than 70% of the divorces are filed by wives. However a new social group is since recent years mingling in the divorce filing rooms in Chinese cities, the elderly generation.

More and more divorces are filed among retired couples, raising to 40% of the total divorce files in for example Beijing or Shanghai. Here it is also the women who are usually filing for divorce. It might well be that the generation gap is better picked up and closed by elder women.

You can see more and more elder women going out enjoying, shopping, dancing, meeting new people or traveling together. Some of the seniors are even picking up studies.

The retirement itch; maybe an elderly gender gap of adaptation to the new China or a youth revival of joy by senior women in China.

#china #chinesesociety #newchina