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Cited by 193Intergenerational Family Dynamics and CaregivingFamily Dynamics and RelationshipsChina's Socioeconomic Reforms and Governance

China’s Revolutions and Intergenerational Relations

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Martin King Whyte·2003
DOI 10.3998/mpub.19840
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Abstract

China's Revolutions and Intergenerational Relations counters the widely accepted notion that traditional family patterns are weakened by forces such as economic development and social revolutions. China has experienced wrenching changes on both the economic and the political fronts, yet from the evidence presented here the tradition of filial respect and support for aging parents remains alive and well. Using collaborative surveys carried out in 1994 in the middle-sized industrial city of Baoding and comparative data from urban Taiwan, the authors examine issues shaping the relationships between adult Chinese children and their elderly parents. The continued vitality of intergenerational support and filial obligations in these samples is not simply an instance of strong Confucian tradition trumping powerful forces of change. Instead, and somewhat paradoxically, the continued strength of filial obligations can be attributed largely to the institutions of Chinese socialism forged in the era of Mao Zedong. With socialist institutions now under assault in the People's Republic of China, the future of intergenerational relations in the twenty-first century is once again uncertain.

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  1. Ansley Coale et al. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1965), 41-60;
  2. Alan MacFarlane, Marriage and Love in England 1300-1840 (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, Inc., 1986);
  3. Levy, "The Limits of Variation." See Deborah Davis-Friedmann, Long Lives (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1991);
  4. Davis-Friedmann, Long Lives. 1 Chunyuan Shang, "Zhongguo Jiating de Guimo, Jiegou Jiqi Fazhan Qushi" (The Size, Structure and Trends of Chinese Family), Renkou Xinxi (Population News) no. 1 (1987). ZGRKNJ [Zhongguo Renkou Nianjian] (China Population Yearbook) (Beijing: China Statistics Press, 1985); ZGRKNJ (1994).
  5. Jihui Yuan and Z. R. Zhang, eds., Laonianhua Dui Zhongguo De Tiaozhan (The Challenge of Aging Facing China) (Shanghai: Fudan University Press, 1991). CNCOA [China National Committee on Aging], eds., Zhongguo Laonian Wcnti Duke Yantaohui Lunwenji (Proceedings of National Symposium on the Policy of Aging in China) (Beijing: China National Commission on Aging, 1994).
  6. Lunchun Zou et al., eds., Beijing de Laonianrcn (The Elderly in Beijing Municipality) (Beijing: Beijing Statistical Bureau, 1994). See IPSCASS [Institute of Population Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences], eds., Zhongguo Laonian Renkou Wenxuan (Selected Papers on the Old Population in China) (Beijing: Press of Economic Development, 1990);
  7. Yuan and Zhang, Laonianhua; Chunyuan Zhang, ed., Zhongguo Laonian Renkou Yanjiu (The Study of the Old Population in China) (Beijing: Peking University Press, 1991). However, see the contrary evidence on continuing youth support for filial obligations and coresidence in chapter 4. One scholar has also argued against the notion that declining fertility will promote more nuclear family units. Zeng Yi contends that there will actually be a rise in the proportion of stem families, with parents living with one grown child. Zeng Yi, Family Dynamics in China: A Life Table Analysis (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1991). Original Categories

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Authors
Whyte, M. K.
Corresponding author
Martin King Whyte
ORCID
Martin King Whyte
Publisher
U OF M CENTER FOR CHINESE STUDIES
Published
2003
DOI
10.3998/mpub.19840
OpenAlex
W1490806083
Cited by
193
References
7
Citations by year
2026: 9 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 10 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 12 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 15 · 2015: 8 · 2014: 8 · 2013: 6 · 2012: 5
FWCI
5.43
Type
book
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • OAPEN (The OAPEN Foundation) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • BiblioBoard Library Catalog (Open Research Library) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • Directory of Open access Books (OAPEN Foundation) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Intergenerational Family Dynamics and Caregiving
  • Social Sciences › Demography › Family Dynamics and Relationships
  • Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › China's Socioeconomic Reforms and Governance
Keywords
intergenerational relations, filial duty, elderly parents, socialism with Chinese characteristics, Mao Zedong era, Confucian culture, social revolution, Baoding

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