Retirement: The Calendar Decides

I am often asked why I'm still working, with the implication that I'm too old.Chinese men must retire at 60. For women, the age is 55. A person's last day of work is his or her birthday.

Manual laborers may be grateful to stop work and collect their government pensions. But for academics and other professionals, this isn't always the case.

A woman we know, a university librarian lapsed into deep depression after her forced retirement and had to be hospitalized. The pheonmenon, which is common here, is called Post-Retirement Syndrome, a term less often used in the U.S. where people have more control over when they retire.

China is over-populated; unemployment is high; and university graduates have trouble finding good jobs. Forcing the old to move on is an obvious, if brutal solution. It parallels the one child per couple policy and is just as detested..

In this society, one often sees senior citizens doing Tai Chi, playing Mah Jong in the parks, or dancing traditional dances. People may care for the grand kids while the adult children go off to work. But there is no well established structure for volunteering or otherwise sharing one's long experience with others, and people may feel redundant and become depressed.

On this Independence Day weekend, we may consider that the right to work as long as we wish is an aspect of Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.