Shanghai Court Names Longtime Neighbor Guardian of Disabled Man In City's First Such Case Involving Non-Relatives

A Shanghai court has approved a 71-year-old man's application to become the legal guardian of a disabled neighbor he and his family have looked after for decades, thepaper.cn reported.

Judges ruled in favor of the applicant, surnamed Liang, naming him guardian of a 56-year-old man surnamed Xu, who has been assessed as having limited civil capacity. Local reports described the case as the first of its kind in Shanghai, involving guardianship between people with no blood relation.

Xu is unmarried and has no children. He has had a mental illness since childhood and moved into a nursing home in 2007, with Liang handling his daily affairs, according to the report. Xu's parents have died, and his only sister – also unmarried and childless – died in 2025.

The court said Liang's parents cared for Xu about 40 years ago, when Xu's own parents were working in Xinjiang. After Liang's parents died, Liang kept looking after Xu, helping him apply for subsidies and pay nursing home fees.

The case reached the court after Xu's only surviving relative, his elder sister, died in Xinjiang earlier this year, leaving her funeral and estate unresolved and prompting Liang to formally petition for guardianship.

At the hearing, Xu said he trusted Liang's family deeply and had always relied on them. The court granted the guardianship, ordering Liang to report regularly to the neighborhood committee on Xu's finances and welfare.

Liang told South China Morning Post he'd always felt his care for Xu lacked a proper legal basis, and that he now intends to devote himself fully to the role. If he's ever unable to continue, he said, his daughter will take over.