Abstract: Against the backdrop of rural social transformation and population aging in China, the phenomenon of elderly individuals engaging in “companionship-based elderly care” has gradually become prominent. Based on field research involving 50 elderly individuals in S County, the study finds that the relationship models within this group can be categorized into three types: intimate-interactive, autonomous-loose, and tense-dependent. As a strategic arrangement, the choice of companionship-based elderly care does not signify the disintegration of original family relationships or the intensification of inter-generational tensions. Instead, their life value and meaning of the elderly remain rooted in their original families. To achieve the goal of “living within the original family”, elderly individuals in companionship arrangements adopt a series of strategies: living together without shared finances to facilitate the flow of economic resources to the original family; directing benefits downward to secure material resources from the original family; utilizing contractual marriage to bind responsibilities and risks to the original family; and integrating strategies to satisfy emotional needs within the original family. Additionally, elderly individuals can move freely between the companionship household and their original family, ensuring they can return to the original family and receive support from their children after the companionship ends. This “exit-available” mechanism provides a crucial basis for the sustainable reproduction of the partnership elderly care model. Companionship-based elderly care, driven by changes in family support ethics and insufficient family support capacity, not only serves as a strategic choice for active self-care among the elderly, but also shapes a new form of inter-generational relations characterized by the coexistence of “separation-integration”. While some adopt it as a strategic arrangement, the majority continue to rely on the original family for support. Consequently, addressing the challenges of population aging requires a dual approach-enhancing the capacity of family-based care while systematically developing a comprehensive rural elder care service system.

Key words: companionship-based elderly care, younger-aged elderly, inter-generational relations, mutual support elderly care, population aging