A Hermeneutic Phenomenological Study of Rural Older Adults' Lived Experience In Post-Pandemic China

Background and Purpose

By the end of 2024, 22% of China’s population was aged 60 and above, with disproportionately higher aging in rural areas (18.7% vs. 13.5% aged 65+). Shaped by the household registration system, rural older adults face persistent disparities in access to social resources and welfare, relying primarily on informal and community-based support in the absence of adequate formal services. COVID-19 intensified these vulnerabilities, yet everyday lived experience remains underexamined in qualitative research. This study used hermeneutic phenomenology to examine how rural older adults’ lived experience of social connectedness and daily meaning changed during COVID-19, addressing two research questions: (1) How did rural older adults in China experience social connectedness, daily meaning, and pandemic disruption during COVID-19? (2) How do these lived experiences reflect the (in)adequacy of existing formal welfare structures in supporting meaningful participation in later life?

Methods

In-depth interviews were conducted with 12 rural older adults (ages 61–83; 6 women, 6 men; education ranging from illiteracy to college) in a village in Shaanxi Province, China in 2022. Data were collected during China's Zero-COVID policy period—a moment of unprecedented social restriction that has since ended, making this a rare first-hand account of rural older adults' lived experience at the height of pandemic disruption. Each participant was interviewed twice (approximately 1–1.5 hours per session). Semi-structured interviews explored daily life rhythms, social interactions, information access, health practices, and perceived impacts of COVID-19. Hermeneutic phenomenology was selected as it is particularly suited to illuminating the essential structures of lived experience in everyday social life. Analysis drew on van Manen's lifeworld existentials—relationality, corporeality, temporality, and spatiality—to illuminate the essential structures of participants' lived experience. The researcher's insider position as a community member was reflexively considered throughout the analysis.

Results

Four essential themes emerged. First, Embodied Relationality: belonging was rooted in place-based practices (e.g., roadside conversations, temple visits). Second, Labor as Existential Anchor: agricultural work provided primary daily structure—not by choice, but as a vacuum-filler for missing social roles. Third, Temporal Rupture and Endurance: pandemic restrictions severed informal ties, producing profound "social longing." Participants relativized this through historical trauma, characterizing coping as "endurance" rather than "resilience." Fourth, Digital Stratification: variation in digital literacy determined whether individuals maintained connection or remained in total informational isolation. These four themes reveal that participants' social lives were shaped less by personal preference or cultural disposition than by the structural absence of formal welfare alternatives.

Conclusions and Implications

Findings demonstrate that what appears as community resilience is often structural necessity. Rural older adults sustain meaning through labor and informal ties because formal systems have failed to provide meaningful alternatives. Their vulnerability is not a cultural characteristic but a felt consequence of long-standing structural exclusion. For social work, merely supporting "improvised survival" is insufficient. We advocate for a rights-based shift: investing in community-embedded welfare, age-differentiated digital inclusion, and policies that decouple human dignity from productive capacity.