Becoming Dama: The new old age in urban China

Abstract

The People's Republic of China has undergone dramatic social changes over the past two generations and has also become the world's fastest-aging society. Among the cohort of people who weathered these changes, some urban women— mostly retirees— have coalesced into a new category of aged person known as dama— defined by shared hobbies, fashion choices, and a joie de vivre comportment. In this article, I investigate the emergence of the “dama” persona among urban Chinese women as they grow older in the aftermath of economic reforms that put women of their age cohort at a distinct disadvantage. Unable to relate to either the “traditional” trappings of old age that they associate with their mothers and grandmothers or the consumption and youth-driven models of femininity that younger and wealthier women pursue, the dama playfully sidestep previously available models of aging while maintaining generational ties with one another. The result is a new version of older womanhood that defies conventions. By examining how social change alters the ways in which people understand and inhabit different stages of the life course, I argue that the dama persona constitutes a new gendered aesthetic of aging that responds to a seismic shift in how identity and status are defined in post-reform Chinese society.