In his first book, Enter the Ageing Dragon..., Bromme Hampton Cole artfully narrated the emergence of modern aged-care in China through the entertaining lens of classical film. He explored the efforts of the Chinese to reconcile local customs of care giving to international standards and examined foreign companies' efforts to find their footing in a nascent industry. In Dragon with a Cane he reaches beyond the realm of senior care business issues and plumbs the human experience of ageing in China. Using his singular ability to effectively communicate, he interviews 8 elderly Chinese men and women, gives them a voice and presents their vulnerabilities and intimate challenges with profound human sentience. Collectively, the stories depict a cultural odyssey of those whose lives began in the early 20th century and are coming to a close in the dawn of the 21st; a mix of tearful tragedies and joyous victories, these profiles convey a real history of the subject's lives, respectfully and poignantly. In a parallel narrative, Cole draws upon the profiles as case studies and formulates a comprehensive social theory for aged-care in China. Dragon with a Cane is, in a very real sense, an ethnographic manifesto of the elderly Chinese experience; a seminal work in every respect.
