摘要

The role and function of the elderly in mass disturbance are generally ignored. Based on the investigation into the T village of K province, this paper finds out that the elderly play a main role in mass disturbance and become the main force in the games with the local government. They not only write petition letters to the competent authority and bring a case to the court and take other measures within our system, but also carry out other actions beyond the system, such as staging sit-ins. The phenomenon is a result of the Chinese culture of respecting the elderly. Furthermore, it is also closely related to unique resource advantages of the elderly, the influence of the social changes on their life course, the need to tackle the local government actions and the need to break the limitations on the current channels to express the interest claims.