LAUSR

As the largest ethnic group in the world, Chinese people reside in many different parts of the world for various socioeconomic, political, historical and cultural reasons. Despite trends of globalisation and cultural unification as a result of international trade, commercialisation, and improvement of global communication technologies, Chinese culture continues to sustain its uniqueness in terms of cultural values, beliefs, customs and virtues. Yet an undeniable fact is that Chinese culture is not static in meaning or nature (Heidenreich, Koo and White 2014). Additionally, conditions such as improvements in health care, economic status and standards of living have led to the longevity enjoyed by Chinese populations (Wang et al. 2016). The increase of the ageing Chinese population speaks to the need for human service professions to pay specific attention to addressing the needs and challenges faced by this population group. While social work literature has examined aspects of working with older people in China and Chinese culture, what is missing is diversity research to explore and address the contextually diverse circumstance and needs to be faced by this ageing population. Generally speaking, a few issues can be identified in social work literature (and practice) with Chinese older adults both inChina andother parts of theworld. Issue #1: The target of social workwith Chinese older adults is solely about older adults themselves. As a result, literature risks fixating on older ressing the complementary social systems in which older people are situated. Family members, intergenerational connections, and caregivers are some of these key social components and stakeholders upon which further research for practice development is required. Issue #2: Social work with Chinese older adults is primarily about how to provide care, particularly long-term care, to older people. Thus, while many studies on older people in China or Chinese culture have focused on needs, challenges, and associated policies, programmes, and services that support or assist older people, research on intervention strategies and practice methods is disproportionally limited. This creates a major hurdle for practitioners who are expected to support growing ageing Chinese populations in China and around the globe. Issue #3: The cultural characteristics manifested by Chinese older adults are perceived as universally relevant. Yet the fact is that culture is a fluid construct and people from the same ethnic backgroundmay not necessarily share ormaintain the same set of values and beliefs, given that their specific sociocultural locations evolve or change. The person-inenvironment perspective of social work fits well with this reality, particularly when considering thewidespread trend of internal and internationalmigrationwithinChina and around the world (Dou and Liu 2015). Socio-cultural interactions and the resulting evolution of values, beliefs and common cultural practices all contribute to emerging cultural milieus enriching the complexity of Chinese culture. This special issue, despite the small number of articles, represents a wealth of illustrations and discussions on various diverse groups of Chinese older adults. The various authors demonstrate that no one culture is a single culture, and that this affects ageing experiences for Chinese populations. As noted by Wang, Walsh, and Tong, the various factors affecting how people adjust to bereavement include family relationships, social support, and cultural CHINA JOURNAL OF SOCIAL WORK 2018, VOL. 11, NO. 3, 209–210 https://doi.org/10.1080/17525098.2018.1563946