Shen Yutong

My earliest academic interest in law was, perhaps unusually, in elder law. Despite decades of Chinese legal reform have sought to reduce individuals’ dependence on family support, yet paradoxically, older people have increasingly become the de facto pillars of familial care. This state-driven “new familialism” has left them particularly vulnerable.Therefore, I have been pursuing one central question throughout my legal education: how can law truly ensure that older people live with dignity, autonomy, and care?

Motivated by this question, I have focused my legal studies at the China University of Political Science and Law (CUPL) on how different legal systems protect older people. My practical exploration began in CUPL’s Labor Law Clinic, where assisting older workers showed me that vulnerability in later life often extends beyond employment into the broader social infrastructure on which older people depend. This realization inspired me to initiate a National-Funded research project on community-based meal services for older people. I later interned at Zhicheng Public Interest Lawyers, China’s largest comprehensive public interest legal service organization, where I examined how algorithmic management affects older workers in rural and marginalized communities.

My academic training has increasingly taken me beyond China. At Oxford’s Summer Programme, I was introduced to the common-law tradition firsthand; during my exchange at the University of Bologna, I was first introduced to trust-based pension schemes and other institutional mechanisms for supporting older people. These experiences deepened my academic interest in elder law, and inspired me to pursue solutions beyond the border.

I am honoured to have been admitted to the Magister Juris programme at Oxford and awarded the David and Jayne Paterson Scholarship. Thanks to the generosity of Mr. and Mrs. Paterson, my Oxford education has become financially possible for my family and me, allowing me to devote myself more fully to my academic work without financial constraints. Their support strengthens my commitment to becoming an elder-law scholar and practitioner with a comparative perspective, and ultimately contribute to the development of more resilient, sustainable, and inclusive systems of social security and elder care.