Publicity on a posted notice is a routine method of indicating approval for the Dibao allowance application. The recipient names are publicized on neighborhood bulletin boards; thus receiving assistance means the public will know the recipients are incapable and cannot make a living for themselves. The research finds that women recipients do not immediately apply for social assistance when their income is barely sufficient to maintain their existence. Instead, only when their family cannot supply sufficient support and they encounter great difficulty in life, do they then decide to apply for social assistance. This indicates a certain responsibility in that the family actually shoulders its own burdens when possible and also the remedial orientation of social assistance in China. For example, W2 decided to apply for assistance from the state when her husband got a serious disease and her son needed money for school. She mentioned that:

"Frankly speaking, I did not want to ask for help from the state at that time because that would make me feel bad. If I could earn money, then I would not expect to get that money. But I had nothing else to do. My parents were too old and their health condition was not optimistic as well. It was not a good idea to ask them for money all the time.”

Thus, it is clear that seeking to live on is the starting point of W2 to apply for social assistance, and also a general motive of the objects of research in seeking for assistance.

Many women felt frustrated by the need to seek and receive assistance. W8 said,

“How do you feel when you stretch out your hands to the state for money and accept alms? What do you think in your mind? My kid will feel inferior to her friends when they play together. She will feel uncomfortable and imbalanced. Why? Her parents are incapable.”

W8’s words not only express frustration but also explain the source of frustration, namely, the difference in social background. In the words of Confucius, “Don’t worry about poverty, but rather about the uneven distribution of wealth.” W8 felt indignant and imbalanced when she compared herself with others; this “injustice” is an important source of her frustration. Besides the expectation of family support, the women participants also do not want to apply for social assistance at the start of their hardships because they do not want the public to know that they are incapable. In other words, the need for success is a factor that interferes with applying for assistance. W11 said,

“In my own opinion, it is better to have a stable job and earn our own living. Nowadays, seeking for social assistance is equal to accepting alms. I am on edge all day.” W13 said, “I am progressive, and I do not want to be left behind. I always had outstanding performance in school. But now, I can do nothing. My parents are old and sick, so I have to admit that I am incapable, and I accept alms from the state.”

The tone in which W11 and W13 were speaking reflected a sense of frustration and their explanation of social assistance as “alms” is a subjective construction and related to their real social life experience. In reality, social discourse stresses the meaning of alms in social assistance, and when the public opinion and the media publicize social assistance, “caring for the vulnerable group” and “giving warmth” to the poor group are the terms often used. Also the gratitude of the assistance-receiving group is highlighted. This has turned assistance recipients into alms recipients, and the government into the alms giver. Such “alms giving” will undoubtedly make female recipients more frustrated, and they will think they are inferior.

Additionally, frustration has caused spiritual pressures in a few women. W1 said, “I feel very wronged and uncomfortable. I often want to cry. Why can others live a better life and why is my life so miserable? I am really a loser.” W7 mentioned, “I think I am already eliminated by the society. There is no meaning in my life. I feel suppressed. But I still hold on firmly for my child.”

The statements illustrate that besides frustration they also feel a sense of injustice and exclusion, and indicate that the female recipients need proper channels to channel their negative feelings when experiencing the emotional disturbance brought on by frustration.

Some recipients found it difficult to apply for social assistance. W3 described the following about her feelings of applying for social assistance, “It is not easy to apply for Dibao allowances. The procedures are complicated, and various documents and certificates are required.” W8 had the same opinion. She said, “Who would be willing to get that? It is so troublesome. You need to fill in forms and get approval for many times. If I am capable, I would rather go to earn money by myself.” W14 mentioned that she once wanted to apply for medical assistance because she and her husband both had chronic disease and their monthly medicine costs were high, but when she asked “local bureaucrats” for information, their attitude were bad, and she was told that medical assistance was only available for serious diseases, such as cancer. W11 directly expressed her dissatisfaction with the RC staff, “I think those people are unqualified because they show a bad attitude, are on their high horse, say whatever they want to say, and regard you as inferior citizens.” Therefore, it is clear that the women think the repeated handlings of procedures and rejection are because the workers are “mean,” “indifferent,” and “in a high rank” instead of because they are unqualified. As a result, they feel ashamed.

Women have different interpretations for publicity on a posted notice. W6 said,

“I think it is not a big deal because I am qualified. Putting on a notice or not does not matter for me. But if you are not qualified but you are still on the list of the notice, then you would not want to post a notice. However, we do have dignity and do not want others to know it.”

W6 believes that publicity will harm her dignity, but she also affirms that publicity can have a supervising role. However, many women participants think that publicity on a posted notice will expose their “individual defect” in front of the public, which shames them. For example, W8 mentioned,

“One day, I saw the name list of the objects with subsistence allowances in my community. There was my name in it. I felt faceless and could not raise my head. I think that, in the hearts of my neighbors, they have mean impressions of us although they haven’t said so. Our family has no communication with them.”

In addition to the feeling of “no dignity,” what makes the women feel worse is the prejudice from the society. W5 told such a story.

“I want to tell a story of how gossips are fearful. I feel angry about it. My neighbour told me that the old ladies like to gather together to gossip. They point to someone and say that they are so young but enjoy the Dibao allowances. Such kind of pressure is really huge. Nowadays, if you have Diabo allowances, you actually will be prejudiced. Sometimes I even look down upon myself. But frankly speaking, I have no other methods. I do not want to get that. But at present, I am desperate. So I can only abandon my dignity.”

Among the women participants, some have not received education assistance. They abandon the application not because their families were unqualified but because they worried that their children would be impacted by the social stigma. Since education assistance is usually applied to schools, applying for education assistance exposes their poor family background of their children to the schools. W8 said,

“I do not want to apply for education assistance for my children, and I do not want my children to feel shamed in school. When she goes to the senior high school, I may make some consultations and send my child to Hongzhi Class.⁶And my child also said that she could go to Hongzhi Class, because in that class, all her classmates have the same background with her. Then she dares to raise her head. But if her classmates are all different from her, she would not dare to raise her head. Others will look down upon her.”

All of the above indicate that the recipients bear a social stigma that will arouse shame. The public has a poor impression of people receiving social assistance and thinks that the assistance recipients reap without sowing and violate the social dictum that “people should stand on their own feet.”

In this study, even though the women complained about the amount and benefit level of social assistance and consider it difficult to satisfy their living needs, they did not use any critical words or sentences to describe the policy of social assistance. Many of them described gratitude for the national policy.

“The state gives me the greatest help. We have enjoyed the Dibao allowances, and applied for reimbursement for my husband’s serious disease through medical aid. Besides, I have received employment aid to serve as a cleaning worker in the community. I feel we have a good government, and feel assured with the assistance.” (W2)

“I think the general direction of government is to serve common people. Even though there are malfeasants, the government has put great efforts to anti-corruption currently, so the justice prevails. I believe in our state and government. The government is so thoughtful, and the policy of social assistance is so good, from which I benefit a lot. I feel grateful to our government.” (W15)

“I consider the government is considerate for us, and I feel grateful. The state, like my mother, understands me and knows that I am indeed in difficulty and then gives a hand.” (W13)

Then, how can we understand the gratitude of these women for the social assistance? Are their words believable? Do they speak insincerely because of some concerns? As far as I am concerned, the interviewees are sincere, and their affirmation and gratitude for national assistance is also out of sincerity.⁷ In addition, different research participants use similar words to describe their feeling towards national assistance at different times and in different places. Thus it proves that the affirmation and gratitude are believable. Apart from the gratitude for the government, some women also describe their sense of indebtedness and feeling of a need to repay society for the national assistance. W6 stated,

“National policies are so good, and render us much help. I sincerely feel grateful for the government. I feel as if I owe our state. I have no great ability, but I have an idea that, anyhow, I will take an active part in public benefit activities in the future, and support our government. When we’re in trouble, the government helps us; in the future, when our children grow up and show promise, they will strive to make more contributions to the state and the society.”

According to W6, apart from feeling deeply grateful, she has a strong willingness to “repay” the national assistance. In traditional Chinese culture, it is an ethical norm to repay those who help you, which is manifested as the reward for the people who help you in terms of interpersonal relationships, as well as “faithfully serving the state” in terms of the social aspect (Ma, 2010).

According to Western literature, not all assistance seeking and receiving behaviors are from a shortage or needs; sometimes, they may be for the strategy of achievement orientation, enhancing the ability to complete a life event task. The stronger achievement need there is, the weaker the motivation for assistance seeking and receiving (Tessler & Schwartz, 1972; Ames, 1983). That is to say, people with strong achievement needs generally are not willing to seek and receive assistance.

According to the research findings in this paper, the female recipients basically have strong willingness to work, meaning they have a certain achievement motivation and hope to realize self-dependence. However, they have to seek and receive assistance from the state because of the plight of survival, resulting in strong frustration about receiving “alms.” In other words, the unsatisfied basic living needs are the greatest force of assistance seeking and receiving, and they especially show the greatest motivation for the education and medical treatment of their children. For these women, being alive and living for their children is of the greatest significance. Although they long for achievements and hope for work, irrespective of the strength of their achievement motivation, the social environment and their problems can make it difficult to find jobs. Therefore, achievement motivation theory cannot fully cover the research findings because the theory fails to explain the contradiction between these women having achievement motivation and wanting to apply for and receive social assistance. The women are faced with an existential crisis. In order to survive, what they consider first is what to live on, rather than how to satisfy their achievement mentality. As mentioned above, the motivation of women recipients in seeking and receiving assistance is not for themselves; instead, it is usually “for children.” Consistent with Chinese cultural characteristics, one’s life is guided in practice by a sense of responsibility within human relationships, which re-explains the characteristics of the women who seek and receive assistance (Ma, 2010), which cannot be fully explained by the “achievement motivation” theory based on individualism. The explanation that relies on a combination of “achievement motivation” and “motivation of basic needs satisfaction” is more persuasive.

In addition, according to Socialist feminism, women face gendered occupational segregation, over-representation among part-time and low-wage workers (Rubin, 1984; Young, 1997). Social welfare aims to provide benefits for the women’s families, but these benefits do not satisfy the women’s needs (Fraser, 1991). The absence of social welfare programs to redress the needs of women created by the duality of their roles (work and family) will lead to the feminization of poverty (Goldberg & Kremen, 1990). In this study, the women recipients showed strong willingness to work, but they couldn’t find formal jobs due to low education or skill level and social environment reasons such as gender discrimination in employment. Social assistance can provide support for these women and their families; however, the welfare support is insufficient and cannot satisfy the women’s needs because on one hand the benefit level of Dibao is rather low (actually at a subsistence level), making it likely that recipients will be trapped in a circle of poverty as a result (Zhang, 2011; Chen et al., 2013), and on the other hand, employment aid measures are very limited and cannot meet the women’s needs for finding jobs. Finally, the insufficient support of social assistance can be said to have an effect on the recipients’ feelings of frustration.

As mentioned above, this frustration has caused spiritual pressures in a few women, which indicates that long-term effect of frustration may do harm to the psychological health of these women and hinder them from participating in the community and the economic market.

The dignity threatening theory argues that the relationship between assistance recipients and assistance providers implies an “inferior and superior” relation, which makes the dignity of assistance recipients susceptible to threats. Moreover, the behaviors of assistance seeking and receiving conflict with the values of “self-dependence” that an individual accepts in the socialization process. Therefore, such behaviors may inspire negative social impressions in individuals and generate threats for their dignities, interfering with those who need to seek and receive assistance (Fisher, Nadler & Whitcher-Alagna, 1982).

In China, the delivery of current social assistance benefit comprises the local sub-district office (SO) and the residents' committee (RC), both of which are community-based agencies (Huang, 2003). The advantage of this delivery system is that these agencies are able to assess the needs and preferences of the local community. Yet, due to insufficient manpower and lack of professional training, the delivery of benefits is usually operated under discretion and is inefficient because it has to rely on “local bureaucrats” who are not professional social workers (Huang, 2003). Assistance-receiving women report that they have difficulties obtaining social assistance and they feel the harshness and condescending attitude of “local bureaucrats” in their interactions as well as the shame resulting from publicity on posted notices, a shame which can be explained by the dignity threatening theory. Affected by the traditional assistance culture in China, assistance recipients’ consciousness of civil rights and concepts of state responsibility have not been deeply rooted, and the relationship between assistance recipients and the state is unequal. Relevant government officials still think of social assistance recipients as people who receive government alms. The “inferior-superior” relationship may threaten the dignity of the assistance recipients. Moreover, the women suffer from pressure, discrimination, and private comments from others, which can also be explained by the dignity threatening theory. Chinese people have received education since their childhood that “humans should make earnest efforts to stand on their own feet and be independent,” which is a social norm (Ma, 2010, p. 168). When people are not strong enough to support themselves, and they have to make a living by relying on social assistance, they feel ashamed due to this social expectation. Society has a negative impression of and discriminates against assistance recipients and their personalities, which aggravates assistance recipients’ feelings of shame, increases their lack of dignity, and hinders help-seeking behavior.

There is a consensus among social policy scholars that the process of means testing for social assistance is often invasive and stigmatizing (Pinker, 1971; Sen, 1995). As Sen (1995) puts it, “Any system of subsidy that requires people to be identified as poor and that is seen as a special benefaction for those who cannot fend for themselves would tend to have some effects on their self-respect as well on the respect accorded them by others” (p. 20). Women tend to be most vulnerable to poverty, and women recipients need to rely on assistance for a long time. Thus, women recipients are often related to welfare dependency and bear welfare stigma (Wilson, 2012). For example, in the USA, women welfare recipients are considered lazy, cheating, bad mothers for whom public assistance is generational and a way of life (Rogers-Dilllon, 1995).

Stigma is generally viewed as a major deterrent factor of welfare take-up. It increases the cost of participating in the assistance program, so that some poor who would participate in the absence of stigma choose not to participate (Moffitt, 1983). China’s social assistance is highly selective and heavily stigmatize the recipients (Solinger, 2008; Ravallion, 2009), thus it could hinder the seeking and receiving of assistance. This study finds that women recipients do not immediately apply for Dibao when they first experience income difficulty, which illustrates that welfare stigma may play a deterrent role. But they finally chose to apply for and receive Diabo in order to survive. In other words, the stigma of receiving assistance was almost meaningless in the face of pressing needs for food and other necessary goods (Rogers-Dillon, 1995). It illustrates that stigma cannot deter women participants from applying for Dibao. And it also confirms that the explanation that relies on the combination of “achievement motivation” and “motivation of basic needs satisfaction” is more persuasive in China(which is mentioned above). As to education aid, this study finds that some women participants do not apply for education assistance for fear that their children would feel ashamed, which indicates that stigma does play a deterrent role in education aid take-up.

In addition, the feeling of shame can result in negative effects on social relations within this community. As mentioned above in the findings, some women feel faceless and have no communication with neighbours or lose contact with friends, which indicates that they are excluded from the community to some degree. Previous studies have found that Dibao recipients experience restrictions in their patterns of social activity and that they have a higher likelihood than others of experiencing social exclusion and loneliness (Huang, 2007; Chen et al., 2013). The findings in this study echo these earlier studies and show the negative effects of the feeling of shame.

The theory of equity assumes that people expect to maintain the equity of interpersonal relationships and that unequal interpersonal relationships may cause indebtedness and individual obsession; with regard to obsession, the individual will make efforts to eliminate it either by repaying or by belittling providers for their assistance (Walster, Berscheid & Walster, 1973; Greenberg, 1980).

After receiving social assistance from the state, the female recipients recover the relationship balance of both parties by appreciating and praising the provider and looking forward to repayment in the future instead of by belittling the provider. In China, the traditional ideas of social assistance mean that poverty is attributed to personal responsibility and social assistance from the government is almsgiving and charity (Guan, 2011). With the development of society, nowadays Regulations on Dibao for Urban Citizens and Interim Measures for Social Assistance have been established that explain that social members have the right to obtain assistance from the government, but due to the influence of traditional ideas of social assistance, consciousness of that right is not deeply rooted in people’s hearts. The study finds the assistance-receiving women feel indebted for the assistance provided by the state, and, with a grateful mind, they consider it a philanthropic act and do not consider it from the perspective of a civil right or state responsibility. The women think that there is “inequity” between themselves and the provider, and they attribute the responsibility for the inequity to themselves, regarding themselves as to blame for the indebtedness of receiving assistance that they cannot repay.

However, in contradiction to the theory of equity, the women eliminate the sense of inequity not by belittling or denying the assistance but by affirming and commending it, and they hope to express their gratitude through “delayed” repayment or their children’s repayment in the future. For unequal assistance seeking and receiving, the women feel indebted, which is in agreement with the theory of equity. However, they stress gratitude and affirmation rather than belittling and denial. The female recipients adopt “gratitude and repayment” to eliminate the sense of indebtedness, which verifies the traditional Chinese assistance-receiving culture that “the favor of a drop of water should be rewarded with the gratitude of a fountain of water” (Ma, 2010). Some women recipients compare the relationship between themselves and the state to the relationship between a child and her parents, equating the national assistance to help from parents. The comparison between “state-individual” and “parents-children” is obviously the representation of a collective narration and social mainstream discourse (Ma, 2010). In the minds of Chinese people, the motherland, like the mother of each Chinese person, fosters the Chinese people. When the small family cannot provide sufficient help, the state affords protection for the weak, like the head of a big family. This view interprets national assistance as charity from the perspective of paternalism ethnics, and thus the recipients should naturally show gratitude.