China's Disappearing Family

China Review, 2020

China’s total fertility rate (TFR) has been below replacement level since the 1990s and below 1.5 since the 2000s. To address the issue of low fertility and rapid aging, the Chinese government replaced the strict one-child family planning policy with the selective two-child family planning policy in 2013 and then the comprehensive two-child family planning policy in 2015. However, a strong baby boom did not ensue, and births hit a record low in 2018. It is thus vital to understand fertility motivation among younger generations of women. Collecting qualitative data in a small city in the Yangtze Delta, we found that the high costs of current practices of child raising and education are prominent factors in women’s mind-sets, and that bilateral family support, including but not limited to help with finances and care, is the cornerstone of this expensive, modern child raising model. A complex, bilateral family model has gradually grown out of the patriarchal system. Grandparents on both sides collaborate with the mother at different times of the day and in different stages of children’s development. A familial relay race of child care reduces the mother’s work-family conflicts. ¬e sustainability of mosaic familism, the gendered intergenerational collaboration following bilateral family lines, is questionable, particularly when raising children comes into conflict with caring for the elderly. We suggest that future policies pay sufficient attention to the needs of women who are embedded in the bilateral extended family.

China Review, 2020

As market reforms and socioeconomic development have transformed the Chinese economy, family life in rural and urban areas has also been directly and indirectly altered. Yet demographers who observe the rise of singlehood and sub-replacement fertility find confirmation of the universal application of theories in support of the Second Demographic Transition (SDT), while others find that high rates of marriage, near absence of births outside of marriage, and continuing centrality of intergenerational aid flows call for a more nuanced approach in China. In response to the still limited research on this rising diversity of contemporary family life in China, this special issue provides both theoretical insights and empirical evidence to examine how individualistic and familial values coexist, clash, and interact in different aspects of family life, and how gender relations and intergenerational politics have evolved at the same time.

American Journal of Public Health, 1998

Handbook of Family Policies Across the Globe, 2013

The Chinese family policies are shaped by the country's political, socioeconomic, and cultural contexts and have evolved over the years. China has passed its most significant family policies and laws in marriage; child rearing; child, women, and elderly protection; family planning; and health care in the past 60 years. This chapter will cover the most important laws and policies that affect Chinese families from 1950 to 2010. The discussion focuses on policy development, implementation and analysis, and the challenges China faces in relation to these policy issues.

Demographic Research, 2020

BACKGROUND In the context of rapid economic and social change in China, we analyze young adult life course trajectories in the important decisions around forming partnerships and creating a family. We focus on the decisions by the millennial young adult cohort who are under 40 years of age. OBJECTIVE We ask "Is China following the Western pattern of delayed marriage and family formation or will the cultural context create a different trajectory to marriage and family formation?" METHODS The study uses data from the China Household Finance Survey. The study examines the extent to which the life-course trajectories are changing in a period of rapid economic and social change, and how parental support and extended family linkages influence the relative rate of the trajectory to marriage and family formation. We use both crosssectional and longitudinal analyses. RESULTS We show that cross generational links are important and reflect the cultural context of the special nature of strong linkages across parents, children, and grandchildren in China. Although age at marriage has increased modestly, marriage is still the norm and having a child takes place quite rapidly after marriage. CONTRIBUTION This paper places the transition to marriage and family formation into an international context and shows how deep cultural forces are changing only slowly with economic modernization. Overall, the analysis suggests more continuity than change in young adults' life course decisions with respect to marriage and family formation.

The China Journal, 2012

Journal of Biosocial Science, 1986

SummaryThe campaign for one-child families in the People's Republic of China has created world-wide interest. This study compares the general rates of single-child families in China and in 60 other countries and shows that…

Contemporary Sociology, 1987

China's one child family policy, which was first announced in 1979, has remained in place despite the extraordinary political and social changes that have occurred over the past two decades. It emerged from the belief that development would be compromised by rapid population growth and that the sheer size of China's population together with its young age structure presented a unique challenge. Methods This article is based on experience from frequent field visits to China over the past 25 years and the authors' collections of relevant Chinese and Western documents from the 1950s onwards. We also used references from the major demographic journals. Population growth since 1953 Government family planning services became available as a contribution to maternal and child health in China from 1953. As the result of falling death rates, the population growth rate rose to 2.8%, leading to some 250 million additional people by 1970. After a century of rebellions, wars, epidemics, and the collapse of imperial authority, during which the annual population growth was probably no more than 0.3%, such an expansion was initially seen as part of China's new strength. Mao Zedong quoted a traditional saying: "Of all things in the world, people are the most precious." 1 Rapid growth, however, put considerable strain on the government's efforts to meet the needs of its people. The fourth five year plan in 1970 included, for the first time, targets for population growth rate. Contraceptive and abortion services were extended into the rural areas, and there was extensive promotion of later marriage, longer intervals between births, and smaller families. Within five years the population growth rate fell to around 1.8%, and the target set for 1980 was a growth rate of 1%. To achieve this, each administrative unit introduced its own target and discussed and, when necessary, attempted to modify its population's fertility behaviour. At local level, collective incomes and allocation of funds-for health care, welfare, and schools, for example-made it possible for couples to understand the effect of their personal family choices on the community. They also made it possible for the community to exercise pressure on those who wished to have children outside the agreed plans.

Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 2004