Abstract: The purpose of establishment of associations of elderly is based on caring vulnerable groups in rural areas, and to make up for lack of national public goods supply. The organization can easily be marginalized and isolated in the period of social transformation, and it has now become an important force in rural communities' self-government. These changes greatly affected the changes in the power structure of rural communities. The paper explores how the association of elderly could existed in rural communities from the history, practice, culture and law four dimensions; clarifies the association of elderly' function in current rural community governance which mainly contained: reconstruction of the authority; strengthening expected village life; improving the village community association, and it puts forward the problems of associations of elderly in the development process, furthermore, suggests the improvement.