She-economy & Sustainability in China

Although International Women’s Day 2018 (Mar 8) has already passed, we believe it’s never too late to celebrate women’s achievements and examine the push forward of gender equality in the context of China’s sustainable development. With the theme for 2018’s International Women’s Day being #PressForProgress, we wondered if #IWS has lost its meaning in China as there seems to still exist such a low…

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Starbucks CSR Program Takes Care of China’s elderly

When speaking to firms about starting to develop their sustainability strategy, we push firms to start with having a much deeper understanding of the challenges that their customer, communities, and wider stakeholders face.   The recent Starbucks announcement launching the “Starbucks China Parent Care Program,” which will provide insurance for the elder parents up to 10,000 employees, for us is a…

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3 Top Concerns for Chinese Citizens in 2017

Last week, President Xi Jinping attended the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Businesses, world leaders, NGOs, and think tanks used the forum to forecast concerns, offer international solutions, and point out emerging global trends. China was often a point of discussion. Chinese Concerns Ipsos, for instance, presented new China-related findings from its 2016 study, “What Worries t…

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Graying Powers: Opportunities in the UK and Chinese Aging Societies

“China has faced the same problem to an even greater degree, on an even greater scale.” — Elderly woman in the U.K. Among numerous global controversies ranging from politics and economics to climate change and energy, one critical issue has fallen out of view of the public eye, until now: the impact of an imminent, graying population. According to the recently released U.K. autumn statement,…

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New Report: Activating the Elderly

"As China’s 'graying population' grows exponentially, the elderly population will be a major economic target for growing markets and services. While both the public and private sectors have made efforts in addressing this issue, current policies and services have been insufficient in addressing elderly demands, and many economic, social, and political challenges facing these systems still persist.…

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New Report: Elderly in China

“A critical time is soon approaching, as the number of elderly is predicted to overtake the number of youths by around 2020... The urgency towards action is illustrated by the recent repeal of the OneChild Policy in China’s 13th Five-Year Plan, which states that “the change of policy is intended to balance population development and address the challenge of an aging population”. With this challe…

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Connecting China’s Generations with Technology

Technology is central to daily life across China and, in recent years, the smartphone has become the king amongst the tech savvy across the country and smartphone connections in China are predicted to reach one billion by 2020. Mobile technology and smartphones are not only becoming vital to personal communication, but are becoming integral in producer and consumer engagement. Individuals perform…

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Chinese Elderly: At Home or on the Move?

Consumer-based companies have long predicted that the future of consumerism rests in the wants and needs of the next generation. China, however, is presenting an entirely different story. The Chinese market suggests that the elderly are the next big source of consumers, and are spending in new and unique ways. Not only are the elderly in need of community center clinics and nursing homes, but are…

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6 Barriers to Tech Ownership Among China’s Elderly

Dormant - People who do not possess a smartphone or smartphone-like technology (e.g. iPad) and have no interest and/or ability to acquire.  There are many reasons why elderly do not adopt new technologies, or in other words, are "dormant." However, the voices of the elderly in China often go unheard on the topic of technology. With this in mind, over the last few weeks, Collective has bee…

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Elderly Economics: Offsetting the Graying of China

China’s elderly population, as discussed in our previous blog post, has far-reaching social, economic, and political implications that have and will continue to shape key areas of Chinese society. The phenomenon of population aging is not unique to China. Economic development is commonly linked to a drop in fertility rates and rise in working age. But the pace at which it aging has occurred in Chi…

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WeChat Speaks: Chinese Say “No” to Nursing Homes

In our efforts to further explore China’s elderly challenge, we launched a WeChat survey over the last week. We received a total of 167 responses, with a generally even split between the two genders (54% female and 46% male). The survey was delivered in Chinese, and as such all respondents are either ethnically Chinese or have at least an intimate understanding of the language and culture. Re…

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The Elderly Challenge – China’s Graying Population

China faces an imminent and multifaceted challenge regarding its elderly population. It has the world’s largest aging population of 202 million people over the age of 60, a number that is expected to increase to 300 million by 2023 and 400 million by 2033. We can attribute China's aging dilemma to a myriad of factors, one of the most prominent being the 1978 One-Child Policy. While limiting each f…

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Three Areas Where Social Entrepreneurs Should Focus in China

Following up from my post last week where I said "there is going to be a HUGE market for providing that capacity ", I was asked for a few examples of where I saw opportunities for products / services. 1) Urbanization and migrants With over 200+ cities with more than a million people, and a few hundred million expected to make a move to the city, this is one of the largest opportunities for…

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