KINSHIP REPLACEMENT IN URBAN CHINA
AND THE ONE-CHILD POLICY
by
TINA KUO, B.B.A.
A THESIS
IN
ANTHROPOLOGY
Submitted to the Graduate Faculty
of Texas Tech University in
Partial Fulfillment of
the Requirements for
the Degree of
MASTER OF ARTS
Approved
December, 2002
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This thesis would not have been possible without the support and encouragement
of my committee members. Dr. Deborah House and Dr. Philip A. Dennis. I would also
like to thank Dr. Yung Mi Tsai for all his help. This thesis would also not have been
possible without the financial support of the Graduate School through the Summer
Thesis/Dissertation Grant. 1 would also like to give thanks to my parents for their support
of my education.
11
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
ii
CHAPTER
1.
IL
in.
IV.
V.
INTRODUCTION
1
Methodology
2
Literature Review
8
History of Family Planning in China
12
The One-Chile Policy Controversy
15
FILIAL PIETY
19
Duties of the Son
19
Traditional Beliefs
23
Modem Times
26
WAITING
29
Enduring Friendship
29
In Limbo
33
New Traditions
35
AGING
41
Health Issues
41
Baby Boomers
46
Staying Afloat
50
ONE CHILD
55
111
VL
VII.
Vm.
IX.
Children That Can Do No Wrong
55
The Five Not So Guarantees
60
GuanXi
63
MARRIAGE AND FAMILY
67
Views on Marriage and Family
67
Marriage
71
Parents Give Children Youth Security
75
ONLY CHILD
79
Expectations of a Father
79
Pressures
83
A New Paradigm
86
CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION
90
First Generation: Mr. Ting
90
Second Generation: Mr. Ting's Children
93
Third Generation: Mr. Ting's Grandchildren
95
AFTERWORD
98
BIBLIOGRAPHY
100
APPENDIX
A.
FAMILY TERMS DICTIONARY
107
B.
SHANGHAI FAMILY PLANNING POLICY
109
C.
MARRIAGE LAW OF CHE^A
115
D.
PARENTAL LOVE VERSUS FAMILY OBLIGATIONS
119
IV
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
China's population control policy has had an effect on the kinship structure of the
contemporary urban Chinese family. This research examines population reduction
programs and their effect on the family dynamics of a culture. In 1979 China mandated a
nation-wide population policy that is popularly known as the One-Child Policy. This
policy is a legacy of other failed population limitation plans that the Chinese government
put into place after millions of Chinese people died due to starvation. The One-Child
Policy limits each married couple to only one child. The objective of the policy is to
reduce the population growth rate to below the replacement rate. The replacement rate is
two births per family, which replaces each parent, making the growth rate zero. The OneChild Policy calls for negative growth and over the span of a few generations it will
reduce the size of the population, or at least slow population growth. This also means that
the generations bom under the One-Child Policy will have fewer or no relatives, namely
aunts, uncles, and cousins (see Appendix A).
The traditional Chinese family considers the family as one entity rather than a
group of individuals living under one roof The well being of the family as a whole is put
above that of the individual; however, special considerations for individuals apply to the
elderly and/or the infirm. The family's function is to support its members; without them
the family would not be able to maximize its potential to gain resources for the family.
Resources such as money or food can be pooled together by individual members. A
three-generation family with twelve members has a larger pool of resources than a twogeneration family with four members. In my research, I will examine the traditional
family and the role of its members versus the contemporary Chinese family and I will
also discuss how non-family members or institutions have replaced many of these
traditional roles.
Methodology
The primary data collection method used for this research project is participant
observation. Participant observation is used primarily in ethnographic research. The
researcher establishes rapport in a new community and behaves unobtmsively so that
people within the community will be more likely to go on about their lives (Bemard
1988:148). The reason participant observation is used most frequently is because it
gathers qualitative data rather than quantitative data; it reduces reactivity (people
changing their behavior because they know they are being studied); and it lets the
researcher become immersed in the environment/culture so that better questions may be
asked and more definite answers may be given (Bemard 1988:149-152). I chose this
method for my study because I felt it would be the most effective way to gauge how
family members interact with each other. My main goal was to see how family members
networked to achieve maximum benefits in response to the One-Child Policy.
I acquired permission to live with and observe a family in Shanghai, China for a
period of three months from July 2001 through September 2001. The permission was
easily granted because of my family and the Ting family's 50 year fiiendship. One of the
reasons I chose the Ting family (see Figure 1) is because of the three family types that
they represent. This is important because 1 wanted to examine the different ways each of
the families coped with the One-Child Policy. Even though they belong to the same
lineage, the family is comprised of different households that are prime examples of a
nuclear, joint, and some elements of a stem family. A nuclear family simply refers to two
adults living together, in a sexual relationship, with their own or adopted children. The
most common form of nuclear family is a mother, father, and children (Leslie & Korman
1989:11). The extended family is defined as a nuclear family with additions of other
immediate members such as grandparents. Polygamous families where there is more than
one father or mother are also considered a type of extended family (Leslie & Korman
1989:34). A joint family involves two or more nuclear families, which together form a
larger family. Such is the case when two siblings, along with their wives and children,
share a household with their parents. The traditional definition for a household is "a
group of people who share a common dwelling" (Leslie & Korman 1989:32). However,
for the purpose of my research, I define a household as members of a family sharing a
common kitchen or cooking stove. I make this distinction because during Mao's reign,
families were forced to live in communes and even though they were technically
considered to be households by the traditional definition, each family cooked for
themselves and worried only whether their own immediate members had enough to eat.
The Ting family is a very interactive family with all members living within the
same building and no farther than two stories away from each other. Even so, they are
divided into separate households. Yiin Ting, the eldest son, along with his wife Ping and
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their son Hang, comprise one household, making it an example of a nuclear family. Fu
Ting, the second eldest son, shares a household with his wife Hui and their daughter Yan,
also making their family a nuclear family. Wen Ting, the third child and only daughter,
shares her household with her husband Xing, their son Zheng, her youngest brother Ming,
and her father, Mr. Ting, making this family a joint family. Wen Ting's household is
especially interesting because even though she shares a common stove with her brother
and her father, she, her husband, and her son do not share a living space or living
expenses with her father or youngest brother. In this case, living space means an
individual apartment, and living expenses include household bills, clothing,
entertainment, and so on. Mr. Ting shares his living space and expenses with his
unmarried son Ming. In essence, there are four nuclear families with different living
spaces but three households: two nuclear and one joint. The fact that all the members in
Mr. Ting's immediate family live within one hundred feet of him and interact with him
daily also make these nuclear families take on the characteristics of a stem family.
Another reason 1 chose the Ting family is because of the closeness of my
grandfather's and Mr. Ting's family. My hopes were that the Ting family would open up
and be less reserved with me than if I had approached a family who was unfamiliar with
me. Time was of the essence and a one-time visit of three months would not have been
enough to secure a tmsting relationship with an unfamiliar family. However, I found that
there were still reservations even among these family members.
The first obstacle I encountered was their unwillingness to sign release forms. The
forms were made for their protection, promising that their true names would not be
revealed in case of government retribution, which is always a fear under the communist
regime of China. The family members would not sign and scoffed at my attempts to have
interviewees who were non-family members sign the document. My second attempt at
documentation failed as well (with the exception of an interview with a sociologist in
Wuhan, China). When I asked for permission to audiotape record the interviews with
family members, 1 was flatly refused. The Ting family was again worried about
government retribution if the tapes were confiscated. My third attempt was to take notes
during interviews and observations. 1 found this made the interviewees nervous. The
natural flow of conversation would stop and the interviewees would lean forward and
look at my notepad even though they had no comprehension of English. My last resort
was a journal, which I kept in private, of the daily happenings and conversations that I
observed and heard from the family members. I found the interviewees were much more
likely to ignore my presence when I did not have a recording instrument of some sort.
Most of the time the Ting family would become so engrossed with their
conversations or debates with each other that they would revert to their native Shanghai
dialect instead of the more common Mandarin dialect of Chinese. This also became an
obstacle for me since my native dialect is Mandarin and 1 had little experience with the
Shanghai dialect. My solution was to ask my main informant (Wen Ting), or a bystander
to the conversation, to translate for me, or I would politely ask them to speak Mandarin.
The latter seemed to annoy the family at times so I fine-tuned my listening skills and
found that the Shanghai dialect was not so different from the Mandarin dialect that I
could not learn to understand it.
After the first three weeks, 1 improved enough to catch words and phrases and to
have a general understanding of what was being discussed around me and then I would
confirm my suppositions with one of the family members after the conversation ended.
Six weeks into my visit 1 had improved enough to comprehend slow-paced conversations,
although rapid-fire conversations still eluded me. By the end of my stay the family would
speak the Shanghai dialect to me and 1 would answer in the Mandarin dialect. The
immersion in the Shanghai dialect facilitated my data collection since 1 no longer needed
to break into a conversation and ask for translations. I would occasionally mn into
difficulty when the family took me to visit the countryside of the Shanghai municipality,
because the dialects can differ every twenty kilometers (12.5 miles). These trips were few
and far between, and I found the members of the Ting family to be accommodating and
helpful under situations where the dialect completely escaped my grasp.
Almost everyone in China speaks the Mandarin dialect and everyone I spoke with
tried to be as helpful as possible. I leamed the importance of understanding the language
and found that there are no English translations that can be substituted for certain words
or phrases. I have included Chinese terms and their equivalent definitions to help the
reader understand the significance of one's position in a family and also the cultural
legacies that might be difficult for the non-Chinese member to understand. The terms I
use are spelled based on the phonetic pronunciation of the Mandarin dialect from the Far
East Chinese-English Dictionary, which is published by U.S. International Publishing
Incorporated.
Literature Review
There has been much written about how families and communities cope with
sfress caused by cultural and political crises. Families and communities will adapt
differently depending on the situation. Much of the literature was cross cultural
comparisons of how other cultures have adapted their kinship networks to fit their
sittiation (Baird, John, & Hayslip 2000; Croll 1983; and Caplan 1976). Since the
literature for China's adaptation of kinship systems under the One-Child Policy is
difficult to find, I have looked at other examples of how families or communities have
adapted. Although the sfress put on the culture is different in each case, the response is
similar. There is a need to alter the dynamics of the family in order to cope with the stress
at hand.
In 1973, several villages in Orissa, India, were involuntarily displaced (forced to
resettle elsewhere) due to government development (Behura & Nay£ik 1993). At this
time, no one understood what the cultural impact of this would be. When the people of
Orissa were displaced the government decided to allocate the new lands equally among
the entire population, regardless of whether they had or had not owned land before the
displacement. This displacement forced the villages to form new kinship ties. Some ties
became stronger, while others became weaker. As the villages were moved, relatives of
these displaced people came from far and wide, and along with neighbors, they rebuilt
their new villages with cooperation and teamwork and therefore, increased the
dependence on distant kinsmen and also increased their obligations to each other.
However, the allocation of land by the government caused altercations and bred distmst
between fathers and married sons. The government allocated land to the head of the
household without considering any sons of marriageable age, who would soon become
household head. This caused fathers and sons to fight over the right of ownership to the
land and many married sons left their natal homes for that of their new father-in-laws'.
This resettlement caused large joint families to break up and also caused families to be
closer to their extended families rather than their immediate families. In this case, family
members formed new kinship bonds as old ones broke down, but what happens when
kinship ties do not exist but are suddenly mandated?
China's population of 1.2 biUion includes many ethnic groups. China officially
recognizes 53 such groups, but a retired curator and current librarian of the Shanghai
Museum told me that there are actually more than the 53 ethnic groups. The Han group
makes up the majority (91.9%)) of the citizens in China (Central Intelligence Agency
2001). Other ethnic groups make up the rest (8.1%)). One such group is the Na group in
Yunan, China. Whereas most of Han dominated China practices patrilineal descent, the
Na practiced matrilineal descent. In this population of 30,000, there are no such kinship
terms as fathers or husbands (Hua 2001:35). In fact, the ethnologist, Cai Hua, could frace
matrilineal relations back as far as the oldest known female ancestor, but the villagers
themselves could not trace their patrilineal relations farther back than two generations.
This is because most villagers do not know who their fathers are, and if they do, they do
not acknowledge them. In this society, the mother's mother or the mother's uncle
performs jobs normally reserved for the father of other societies, such as childcare and
child discipline (Hua 2001:147). The Na matrilineal family is usually made up of three
generations and children refer to their mother's sisters as mother; however, even though
this society is matrilineal, property is passed through the males (Hua 2001:147, 163,
165). In this case the family property is passed from an uncle to a nephew.
Since 1958, the Chinese government has tried several times to advocate, and then
impose, monogamy on the Na society. The government "sent a Jeep filled with marriage
licenses.. .couples were rounded up in the villages under the brigades, and a leader would
take their finger prints on the marriage form and hand them each a marriage license"
(Hua 2001:394). This caused social upheaval since mothers would not accept their
daughters leaving to live with a husband, nor would they accept other women moving
into their households, so the government built houses and encouraged the Na people to
set up nuclear families.
In the end, the majority of cases were uxorilocal. Sometimes, the couples
were rejected by both of their lignees [natal homes]. Living like
vagabonds, they moved from place to place, borrowing a room from a
consaguineal relative or staying with a neighbor, while they waited to
build a hut. (Hua 2001:394-395)
Before the government interfered, the Na were able to have as many children as they
wanted without the need of identifying the father of these children. Now, the Chinese
government mandates a family planning policy. Starting in 1981, the policy states (1) a
fine of 30 yuan per year per illegitimate child is imposed unless a man acknowledges that
the child is his, and when he acknowledges the child to be his then he must take
responsibility for the cost of raising the child until the child reaches the age of eighteen;
and (2) each Na woman has the right to have three children, but if she has a fourth, her
lignee will be fined 20 yuan per year until the child is eighteen (Hua 2001:398).
10
Apparently this has worked in transforming the Na culture. Currentiy, the education
system is taught in the Han language. Children are being taught Han ideas and as Hua
(2001:400-401) noted,
...as children graduate from middle school, they must complete a form
that includes a column requesting information on their civil status. Unable
to fill in the blank asking for the name of their father, they suddenly
become aware they do not have a father, while their classmates from other
ethnic backgrounds do. Some of the Na students, usually the most brilliant
ones, find a quiet spot where they can cry in private.
These children are no longer proud of being able to trace their matrilinage back to one
ancestral female, but are ashamed that they have been made into bastards by the
dominant society.
The current situation of kinship replacement in urban China is certainly different
than the above two examples, but nonetheless, there are noticeable adaptations among
families coping with the One-Child Policy. Watson (1997:8) notes that culture is a set of
ideas, reactions, and expectations that is constantly changing as people and groups
themselves change. The significance of my research is not so much the changes in
kinship ties, but rather the cultural changes that is caused by the changes in these kinship
ties. For example, each member within the traditional Chinese family has a role and
obligation to support the family, but when the Chinese government passed the One-Child
Policy, it limited the number of young family members and therefore modified the
amount of support the elderly members would receive. This, in turn, altered the
relationship between the youth and the elderly, as will be shown in Chapter VIII.
II
History of Family Planning in China
In the 1950s, Mao Zhedong had a vision of a strong and powerful China. Under
his regime, the population of China was encouraged to produce everything from crops to
babies. Encouraging fertility was part of his 'Great Leap Forward' Plan of 1958 (Hayase
1991). There were stories of "glorious mothers" being rewarded for having as many as
five children (Pomfret 2000). These 'model mothers' were recognized for doing their part
in making a strong China. Yet even with Mao's determination to out-populate the rest of
the world, there were those within his administration who disagreed with him and were
concemed that China's growing population would cause problems (Shaoqi 1954:205206). One of their fears was that the country did not have adequate resources to sustain
such a large population. The challenge would be to balance the food supply with the
population.
As early as 1954, the central government in Beijing began actively promoting a
birth control campaign. This campaign emphasized intensive public
instmction/awareness, but the public had little interest and the plan was dropped in 1958
though birth control services were still offered (Piotrow 1971:12). Later, 30-45 million
people died as a result of famine caused by natural disasters (Jing 2000:22). The failure
of Mao's 'Great Leap Forward' plan in the years between 1959 and 1962 also contributed
to these deaths (Piotrow 1971:12). Poorly planned programs such as the eradication of the
country's sparrows in order to bring about reaping higher grain yields caused more
disease and famine when the insects that sparrows ate became so over populated that they
spread disease and devastated crops. Plans to make China an iron producing country
12
backfired when farmers' farming tools and family cooking pots and utensils were
confiscated and smelted. The result was inefficient food production for China and lowgrade iron that was not good enough to be made into anything.
After these episodes, China knew that it could not feed its surviving citizens, let
alone its unborn citizens, and a new population plan was implemented between 1963 and
1966. This time, instead of relying on voluntary public compliance, the government
applied social coercion in the form of close surveillance and threats such as demotion.
The plan called for late marriages (ages 28-30 for men and 25 for women), a three-year
interval between marriage and first birth, and a three-year interval between subsequent
births (Piotrow 1971:18). This plan was effective in urban areas. Rural areas had little to
lose; since they did not have many privileges to begin with, there was no point in
enforcing these rules among them. The Cultural Revolution in 1966 stopped the plan in
its tracks. Chaos within the Communist Party stmcture left few resources to enforce the
plan and people took advantage of this by marrying younger and having more babies. The
government once again sought to control the population when census reports showed a
nattiral birth increase of 2.9% (34 million) between 1966 and 1968 (Piotrow 1971:19). In
1973 the government tried again with a slogan of "Late, Spaced, and Fewer," meaning
that it encouraged late marriage, longer intervals between births, and fewer births (Zhao
1991:1). When the birth rate of China dropped after the implementation of this policy, the
government officially declared an across the board one-child-per-family policy in 1979.
This became known as the One-Child Policy.
13
The One-Child Policy was the first of its kind. Other countries, such as India and
Singapore, have had government imposed population control programs or policies
(Lakshmanna 1988; Chen & Fawcett 1979; Nortman & Hofstatter 1980:10), but never
before was there a program that limited births to one per couple. Most policies
encouraged parents to limit their births to two or three at the most and monetary penalties
were applied if the couple did not comply. This could be one reason why China's OneChild Policy has come under such scrutiny by critics who say that the policy allows the
government to violate human rights through forced abortion or sterilization.
During the stages of population planning, China encouraged the use of abortion
facilities and the use of the uterine ring contraceptive, but later they advocated oral
contraceptives when in 1968 a 22-day birth control pill was developed and shown to be
98% effective (Snow 1971:6). In 1969, China announced the development of a once-amonth birth control pill that had been proven to be effective in clinical studies (Snow
1971:8), but that option was discarded once China implemented the One-Child Pohcy.
Under the One-Child Policy, a woman who gave birth after one child was given the
option of a hysterectomy free of charge, and if she chose to undergo the operation, she
was allowed extra rewards such as extra paid vacation days or monetary bonuses (see
Appendix B).
The fundamentals of the One-Child Policy are mandated nation-wide by the
central government in Beijing, China; however, there are regional variations of the
policy, which are adapted to the needs of the people. For example, my research was
carried out in the municipality of Shanghai, China, which includes the city of Shanghai
14
and the surrounding countryside. The municipality of Shanghai has adopted the basic
core of the One-Child Policy where one child is allowed per couple but the specifics such
as rewards, punishments, and so on are set by the municipal congress of Shanghai (see
Appendix B). China is a large country with as many as 1.2 billion people who share
thousands of customs and hundreds of dialects (Central Intelligence Agency 2001). The
central government realizes that to implement a single policy nation wide without taking
into consideration the cultural practices and economics of an area can be disastrous for
the policy. Therefore, the local government is given freedom to adjust the policy as it
sees fit as long as the fundamentals of the policy stay intact (Hayase and Kawamata
1991).
The One-Child Policy Controversy
The One-Child Policy is a controversial issue because many human rights and
Christian groups believe that it infringes on what they see as the basic human right of
procreation. At the same time, there are also additional alleged violations such as coerced
abortions and sterilizations as a result of the enforcement of this policy. As a whole, there
are mixed feelings in the intemational community about whether this policy is moral. The
debate has always been human rights versus environmental rights. Do humans have a
right to over-populate the world and over-exploit the earth's resources or should humans
be subjected to violations to their bodies?
Among the proponents of family planning are the United Nations Populations
Fund (UNFPA - part of the United Nation's system) and the World Bank. From the
15
intemational political point of view, this policy is seen as a form of family planning
rather than a policy that violates human rights. This policy is believed to be a responsible
step in reducing the stress of the world in terms of resources, while at the same time
freeing up urban spaces that are in danger of collapse from over population (The World
Bank 1994:4). United Nations' studies have shown that low population growth has a
positive effect on the quality of education, environmental quality, and female labor-force
participation.
According to United Nations' studies, family planning has a positive effect on the
health of the general population, and it is offered as a part of health and medical services
(The World Bank 1994:34). These services reduce the health problems of mothers who
have complications from multiple and closely-spaced births. Family planning also
reduces hunger and starvation by freeing up food resources for the underprivileged,
taking China a step closer to becoming a developed country rather than a country that is
dependent on foreign aid. Even though the World Bank and the UNFPA believe that the
steps China have taken to reduce its population growth are to be commended, they do not
support or condone the use of force or coercion in bringing about abortion or sterilization
and they stand behind humanitarian efforts to stop these acts (The World Bank 1994:7778). However it is difficult to miss the double-edged sword that is part of the One-Child
Policy. On the one hand, China is applauded by the intemational community for
effectively carrying out its family plarming policies, and, on the other, it is condemned
for the methods it uses to achieve its goals. Critics of the policy refuse to accept human
rights violations as a compromise necessary to alleviate global sfresses.
16
One of the critics of the One-Child Policy is Harry Wu, a human rights activist
and founder of the Laogai Research Organization, which lobbies for human rights in
China from the United States. He claims that forced abortions or sterilizations cause
permanent physical and emotional damage to the mother and he accuses the Chinese
government of cmelty to its citizens by forcing women to undergo these operations (Wu
2001). Wu also cites instances of infanticide of female babies as a result of this policy.
Other critics, such as Amnesty Intemational, join Christian groups in firmly denouncing
the policy, based on issues such as right to life. Another critic is the Human Rights Watch
group. They accuse orphanage medical staffs in Shanghai of diagnosing unwanted
children as physically or mentally handicapped and therefore denying them medical care
and adequate food (Human Rights Watch/Asia 1996).
It is difficult to ignore stories and statistics of abandoned female children
overcrowding orphanages or the neglect in hospitals of children from second births. The
Chinese government, however, defends the population policy and claims that abortions
and sterilizations are only performed with the consent of the mother. It argues that the
policy benefits the mother by minimizing health risks and complications to which both
the mother and child are susceptible, as a result of multiple pregnancies or births. China
has also taken steps to prevent the abortion of less desired female children (as opposed to
male children) by outlawing sonograms to insure the safe birth of these babies; however,
sonograms are prescribed if the medical staff feels that there are potential health risks to
either the mother or the baby.
17
Given all the facts, it would be unnerving to be a public official trying to judge
whether the One-Child Policy is positive or negative. As an anthropologist, I have tried to
gather the information and present the results in an unbiased manner. My goal is to
provide a broad view of the effects the One-Child Policy has had on the Chinese family.
The information I present here is organized into nine chapters including the Introduction,
Conclusions and Discussions, and an Afterward. Chapter II will explore the tradition of
ancestor worship and how modem China deals with continuing traditions. Chapter III
looks at the situation of the growing population of the elderly. Chapter IV discusses the
expectations of the middle generation who are obligated to raise the young and provide
for the old. Chapter V continues with the middle generation's expectation of the onlychild. Chapter VI looks at the marriage situation of the only-child generation, and
Chapter VII will focus on the only-child generation and the pressures it faces with an
aging population. These chapters are designed to allow the reader to participate in the
cultural aspects of everyday life in China. Each chapter starts with observations of my
surroundings or a "story" that illuminates the topic of each chapter. At the end of each
story is an in depth analysis of how the One-Child Policy has affected the lives of the
people in these stories. My goal in relating my observations is to convey how the OneChild Policy has affected each generation differently.
18
CHAPTER II
FILIAL PIETY {XIAO)
Duties of the Son
".v/t/o di[ Go downstairs and buy another fish. I've mined this one." Wen Ting
yelled from the kitchen to her youngest brother as she tried once again to salvage the fish
she put in a bowl.
"What is wrong with the one we have?" Ming Ting asked as he strolled into the
kitchen. He looked at the mined fish and poked its head.
"Look at it! I mined it when I tried to flip it into the bowl and now the flesh has
come off of the bones and it is not presentable. We can't use it as an offering. Go
downstairs to the market and buy another one. And we need some beer too!" yelled Wen
at the refreating form of her brother. As far as I could tell, no one in Shanghai spoke in a
normal tone of voice. Everyone had to out-shout everyone else in order to be heard.
Wen began busily moving furniture and setting up a table. She spreads out a
plastic tablecloth and adds two red candles in the center of the table. She sets the table
with the foods that she had already prepared while Mr. Ting sets a metal container out in
the patio to be used later. Ming comes back and hands a clear plastic bag containing a
recentiy gutted fish to his sister and sets two liters of beer on the table.
Wen looks into die bag and says, "Ah yo! You got the wrong kind! Mother does
not like this kind. Why are you so stupid? I can't send you to do anything." Ming is
silent. At this time all three of her brothers and her father, Mr. Ting, have congregated in
19
the kitchen. Wen's husband is finishing the last touches by lighting the candles and
pouring a glass of beer. Yiin Ting, who had a fever the night before and is still ill, herds
his brothers, his father, and me out the door and into his mini-van. Wen and her husband
stay home to attend to the table. All of Mr. Ting's grandchildren are still sleeping.
Ming is told to drive since Yiin was recovering from his illness. During the drive
there is a difference in opinion on road directions and Ming's driving ability. After fortyfive minutes of arguments and spontaneous testing of the van's brake system, we reach
our destination. It is the cemetery. This cemetery is an expansive plot of land that
stretches as far as the eye can see. It has the most auspicious Feng Shui (otherwise known
as geomancy, or divination by geographic features) position with water in front and
mountains behind. This area is a far cry from the air and noise pollution of the city. There
are no tall buildings to stifle the trees and the only residents are those that are
underground.
The Chinese lunar calendar date for the Chinese holiday of Chung YUan is on July
15*. On this day it is believed that ancestral spirits retum home and visit their living
descendants (Chao 1983:180). This year, July 15,* happens to fall on September 2"'^ of
the Georgian calendar of 2001. On this day families make offerings to their loved ones by
cooking the deceased's favorite foods and bringing their favorite beverages. They also
make other symbolic offerings, such as buming golden paper for the deceased, to be used
as money in the after life, or lighting a cigarette and placing it on the alter for the
deceased to enjoy. The Chinese believe that sprits of the deceased are released into the
living world for this one day of indulgence.
20
Today, the cemetery is packed with families and their offerings. Some come with
real dishes of food and others come with plastic ducks and wax fiiiit. Some come emptyhanded like the Ting family. At the cemetery gates Mr. Ting begins arguing with a man
who is trying to charge the family for parking. "1 already pay enough for the plots. Why
do 1 have to pay more to visit?" he says angrily. His sons have to pull him back from
shouting at the man. The parking man finally gives in to the 79-year-old Mr. Ting and
lets the family through the gate without charging them.
"Someone should go buy some flowers at the shop," says one of the brothers. As
if on command, Yiin and Ming separate from Mr. Ting and Fu. Mr. Ting and his second
eldest son Fii Ting make their way towards a plot. When Mr. Ting reaches it he takes a
handkerchief and wipes off the dust that has collected on his wife's picture tile since the
last year. In Chinese culture, the grave marker usually includes a picture of the deceased
that has been baked onto a ceramic tile. I call this a picture tile. There is a blank picture
tile cameo next to Mrs. Ting's picture tile that will be replaced with Mr. Ting's own
picture tile someday.
Carved on the Ting's stone is Mrs. Ting's name. Undemeath Mr. Ting's empty
cameo and to the left are carved their sons' names, their sons' wives' names, and their
sons' children's names. Their daughter, her husband, and her child's name are carved on
the far left of the stone with the word "wa/" or "outside" attached before their tities of
daughter, son-in-law, and grandson. This is to recognize her as Mr. and Mrs. Ting's
daughter, but at the same time it distinguishes her as having been married, and therefore
21
she is someone who is no longer part of the family. Mr. Ting's own name will be carved
into the stone when his picture tile is placed next to his wife's.
Mr. Ting's eldest son retums with a bunch of flowers wrapped in cellophane, two
red candles, incense, and a plastic cup filled with sand. The candles are used to light the
way for the deceased to find their loved ones and the sand in the plastic cup keeps the
incense stable.
A few minutes later Ming arrives with a bunch of half-wilted flowers wrapped in
cellophane along with candles, incense, and sand.
"Where did you get those flowers?" asks Yiin.
"I bought them at the shop." Ming replies.
"Why did you buy them? I said that I was going to the shop to get the flowers.
How much did you pay for them? I paid 10 yuan," Yun says.
"I didn't hear you say you were going to buy them. I was headed to the restroom.
I paid 15 yuan," Ming says.
"15 yuan! You paid too much! Look at them. They're almost dead. I cannot
believe you paid so much for bad flowers," his brother Yiin says. "You were fooled. Did
you go to the shop by the gate?" Ming nods. "He only charged me 10 yuan," Yiin tums
and laughs to his father and his other brother, "Our little brother is such a fool. He is
always being taken advantage of Don't you know that you have to bargain?"
"It is all right, it is all right. Stop arguing," Mr. Ting says patiently. "It is all right
if he paid too much. It does not matter that your mother has two sets of flowers." Mr.
Ting crouches down on his old knees and sweeps clean the alter area with his hands and
22
sets down both bunches of flowers. He proceeds to light the candles. The wind is very
sfrong that day and the flames cannot stay lit. Mr. Ting and his sons all stmggle trying to
keep the candles lit. While shielding the candles from the wind, everyone takes tums
lighting a stick of incense and bows three times to Mrs. Ting's headstone. Ming, the last
of the sons to bow, gets on his knees and kowtows three times to show respect.
Kowtowing an optional way to show respect. The action is to kneel and touch the
forehead to the ground in expression of deep respect, worship, or submission.
Mr. Ting puts his hand on the tombstone and bows his head in a private moment
with his wife. He wipes his eyes and walks away with his sons and me in tow. The entire
ceremony takes less than one hour and will be repeated again the following year.
Back at the house, the candles have been extinguished and the golden paper
money has been burned in the metal container out on the patio. The family sits down at
the table and eats the reheated offerings for lunch while sipping on beer (Shanghai City,
September 2, 2001).
Traditional Beliefs
Filial piety is a concept that has endured from ancient China to contemporary
Chinese society. The duties of filial piety cannot be dismissed even when one's parent is
deceased. Rain or shine, sickness or in health, offerings have to be made in the name of
filial piety to keep the ancestors satisfied. Mrs. Ting's sons all made the trip to show their
mother respect and also to comfort their father to show that they care. This is the most
basic form of filial piety.
23
An early advocate of filial piety was the famous scholar Confucius. Confucius
(551-479 B.C.), who was bom to low nobility during feudal times, was one of many
scholars who was not immune to the disasters caused by feuding states. Traveling from
state to state, he shared his visions of a society committed to leaming, refinement,
cultural accomplishment, and the practice of rituals. His ideas included the basic conduct
or responsibilities of noble persons. He promoted style, manners, moral force, and virtue
befitting a noble person (Bloom 1999:42). He believed that virtue had more to do with
refined conduct than with martial might. Among the virtues he esteemed most was filial
piety. Filial piety is defined by Chao (1983:72) as "punctiliousness in the performance of
duties naturally owed to parents and relatives." It is said that, "filiality is the root of virtue
and the wellspring of instmction" (Chao 1983:326). Although Confucius did not
infroduce the concept, he taught that filial piety includes one's duty to one's parents and
only loyalty to the state precludes it (Baker 1979:102). Thus, as Confucius said, "filiality
begins with service to parents, continues in service to mler, and ends with establishing
oneself in the world" (Bloom 1999:326). In traditional (pre-twentieth century) patrilineal
Chinese society, it is the male members of the family whose duty is to be filial. In order
for a man to fulfill his destiny, he must be a virtuous example to society and he does this
by honoring and giving glory to his parents and his mler with self-sacrifice, if necessary.
In theory, women existed to serve the male principle and in classical thought they
were considered to be wards of a male relative or husband throughout their lives (Baker
1979:21). Any fiUal piety a female performed reflected well on her father or husband.
Once a woman is married, she and her husband become one person and the husband's
24
purpose in life (being filial to his parents) also becomes the wife's purpose in life (Chao
1983:92). When a woman is married, she has a responsibility to act with filial piety
towards her new parents-in-law. This, however, does not undo her responsibilities
towards her own parents. A pious daughter was one who looks after her parents' interests
as well as her husband's; and his interests should always be his parents. The role of the
daughter-in-law was to succeed in her mother-in-law's position. As a successor, she must
perform the most filial act of continuing her husband's lineage by giving birth to sons
who will carry out the worship of her husband's ancestors.
Filial piety is extended beyond death in the form of ancestor worship. Death of a
parent does not release a child from filial responsibility. The filial responsibility takes on
another form, in which the parent is revered through worship instead of obedience.
Ancestor worship is a type of reciprocity where the descendants provide the ancestors
with all the symbolic comforts that they enjoyed in life and in retum the ancestor bestows
benevolence and blessings on the family (Baker 1979:71). The Chinese believe in a
'continuum of descent,' where one descendant depends on the other to survive (Baker
1979:26). In other words, one does not exist without one's parents. In fact, being filial
includes causing no physical harm to oneself You are the product of your parents and
harming yourself translates to harming your parents or ancestors. At the same time, it is
also considered unfilial to not bear children (Chao 1983:42). If a man has no children, he
is in effect destroying his family because when he dies his unbom descendants die with
him (Baker 1979:74), which also causes problems for his ancestors because without him
and his descendants to worship them they will suffer poverty and discomfort in the next
25
world. Based on this, we can see why there is such a strong desire among Chinese people
to have as many children, especially male children, as possible. Mortality rates for
children in the past were extremely high. For a child to survive to the age often was rare
(Baker 1979:5), so families produced many children out of a need for some of them to
survive into adulthood so that the ancestors would continue to be worshiped. Another
reason to have many children was to secure the continuity of the male line. Since there
was a one in two chance of a child being bom female, it was even more important to keep
trying for male heirs. Also, in traditional times, children were not only potential
caregivers and worshipers in a parent's old age and eventual death, they were also
considered to be valuable providers of labor.
Modem Times
In modem (post-twentieth century) Chinese society, xiao is still a common
concept and practice. Centuries have abbreviated the definition of filial piety into basic
acts of obeying, honoring, and providing for one's parents. Centuries of cultural heritage
have also abbreviated the need to worship an entire lineage of ancestors. Today only
one's deceased parents and perhaps grandparents are worshiped. Paying homage to
ancestors on a daily basis by offering tea and food has also been condensed into national
holidays, and on occasion, a permanent display with offerings of plastic or wax foods is
made. Nowadays, a generation of only-children is in danger of losing the concept of filial
piety and what it represents.
26
A longitudinal study over the span often years on the behavior of only-children
conducted by Dr. Feng Xiaotain, a sociologist at Central China Polytechnical University
in Wuhan, China, has shown quantitatively the increase in selfishness (i.e., not sharing)
among only-children versus children with siblings (Feng 2001). It is the fear of a
generation of selfish children that concems the Chinese government. The possibility that
this new generation of children will forget about their duties to their parents in order to
comfortably pursue their own interests, could force the Chinese government to care for
the elderly population. Like the United States with its baby-boomers, China is facing the
dilemma of a growing number of elderly people. Filial piety in the past has always
guaranteed the elderly with a type of old-age security by means of their children. The
One-Child Policy has taken this security away. Instead of a large household of young
people providing for a few elderly parents, there are now relatively few young people
providing for the growing number of elderly people in a household. This added financial
stress has caused more than a few young married couples to rethink the possibility of
parenthood (Pomfret 2000), as the reader will see in Chapter VI.
As we know from Confucius, the most unfilial acts are not providing for one's
parents and not propagating in order to provide for one's ancestors. The question now is,
who takes over the responsibilities of filial piety when modernization makes it
realistically and financially difficult? One solution for families in the continuance of
ancestor worship is using the traditional national holidays as a day spent for honoring the
deceased ancestors with symbolic foods, paper money, houses, automobiles, and even
paper servants (a remnant of sacrificial burials) to tide them over until the next year.
27
Another solution is to hire someone else to worship your ancestors for you. During
ancient times there were people who fell under the category of having no lineage. The
heirless, monks, eunuchs, and nuns had no descendants to attend to them. In order to
prevent these people from becoming beggars in the after life, public donations were taken
and the money was used to provide for them. Religious figures such as nuns or monks
were taken care of by other nuns or monks within the temple. It was also same for the
eunuchs, the protectors of women in the palaces. They were taken care of by other
eunuchs (Baker 1979:74-77). In modem times, burial plots are bought in cemeteries with
groundskeepers to sweep the tombs free of debris. Inclusive packages may be purchased
so that flowers, candles, incense, and offerings will be kept in constant supply for one's
loved ones in the next world. This still leaves the question, who cares for the elderly who
are still living? This question has caused citizens to be dissatisfied and the government to
search frantically for answers.
28
CHAPTER 111
WAITING {DENG)
Enduring Friendship
Many of Mr. Ting's friends live in retirement homes. One of these friends is an
83-year-old woman named Ms. Ye. Ms. Ye has never married and is childless. Her
brother, who passed away several years earlier, was also unmarried and childless. She
lives in a retirement home in Shanghai and she makes it her life's goal to convince
unmarried people of the merits of marriage and children. She cites herself as an example
of an unhappy woman, because she has no children of her own. Mr. Ting does not visit
her often because it causes him great sadness to see his friend confused and lonely, but
one day in early September Mr. Ting and I take the Tunnel Bus Number One across the
river from his home in Pu XT (westem bank of the Yangzi River) to Pii Dong (eastern
bank). Mr. Ting steps off the bus at the first stop outside the tunnel. He jaywalks across a
six-lane road. His legs take quick long strides making it hard for me to keep up with him.
He tums onto a street where the buildings on either side are under constmction. The
buildings are wrapped in bamboo scaffolding and green netting. At the dead end of the
sfreet is the loading dock for the barges that crossed the Yangzi River everyday with
cargo and passengers on bicycles. To the front and the left of the dock was a seven-story
building with its north side under constmction.
Mr. Ting enters the building and walks right past the reception desk. No one at the
desk looks up from behind the counter to see who is coming or going from the building.
29
The activities center is to the left of the reception desk. In the activities center, at least
half a dozen ma-jong games are going on simultaneously making the activity center very
noisy from the clicking of ma-jong tiles and the blaring wide screen television set in the
very back. Several men and women are seated right by the door; some are napping and
others are reading newspapers. One lady in particular sat very close to the door as if
anticipating visitors who seldom come.
"YeyVt'," Mr. Ting calls her by her sumame and she squints in our direction
because of her poor eyesight. Her expression soon tums into surprise and she smiles and
holds out her hand in Mr. Ting's direction.
"Come here, sit, sit. I wasn't expecting you. How are you? Have you eaten? They
will be serving limch here in a few minutes. Please stay and have lunch," Ms. Ye replies
very fast in her native Shanghai dialect. Then she seems to notice me standing next to Mr.
Ting.
"Ye jie, do you remember Mr. Kuo? This is his third son's daughter. You
remember his third son, don't you?" Mr. Ting speaks loudly. When Ms. Ye looked
confused Mr. Ting added, "You remember my old neighbor; he had five children and
then they left for Taiwan. His third son was the prettiest."
"I remember. He was the prettiest," she nods her head toward me, "and this is Mr.
Kuo's daughter? She is so young!"
"No, she is his granddaughter, Tina. She lives in the United States." He said
She tums to me and says, "My father worked at an English bank and I can say a
littie English 'January, Febmary, March,...' I can say all the months," she giggles.
30
"Ye jie, how are you doing?" Mr. Ting asks with concem in his voice.
"I'm doing all right. How is your family? Why didn't you bring your daughter?"
Once again they revert back to their Shanghai dialect and they speak at a speed that
boggles my ability to comprehend. 1 sit quietly next to Mr. Ting trying to pick up words
here and there. Later Mr. Ting told me of their conversation. He said that Ms. Ye was
asking him to help her sell her house. Apparently Ms. Ye's cousin's son took all her
valuables from the house and kept them for himself, and she needed the money to pay her
half of the payments for the retirement home. She paid half of her room and board while
her work unit, from which she retired many years ago, paid the other half Mr. Ting also
told me that Ms. Ye worked in a food processing plant after the Communist Party took
over. Her family was considered to be bourgeois and the party convinced her to open her
safe-deposit boxes at the bank and sell the contents, including solid gold bars, to the party
at ridiculously low prices. She was able to keep a few decorative items made of precious
metals, which were the items her cousin's son, whom she called her "nephew," took from
her house. After she retired, she decided to move into a retirement home but also keep her
house at the same time. She feared that her home might be burglarized so she asked her
nephew to look after her belongings for her. Little did she know that her own relative
would take advantage of her.
Housing in China is allocated through the work units. The Chinese government
allocates property (land and buildings) to the work units, and they in tum divide the
living spaces within the buildings to its workers. The workers may choose to purchase the
living space (though not the land) or lease it by paying a very inexpensive rent to the
31
work unit. If the worker 'owns' the home, then he/she can sell that space but the land that
it sits on still belongs to the work unit. Recentiy, changes in the law have now made it
possible to purchase a lease on both the land and building titles for 99 years. There is no
permanent purchase of land because the Chinese government owns all the land.
Mr. Ting told me that he encouraged Ms. Ye to ask her work unit for help in this
matter. Her work unit still owned the land and might offer her a good price since she
believed that her nephew would cheat her if she asked him to help her sell the house. Mr.
Ting wished he could help his friend, but he knew that there was a large sum of money
and family matters involved. He later confided in me that he was afraid to help her
because her nephew might accuse him of trying to swindle her out of her money. He told
me that she treats her cousin's son as a son but he never comes to visit her. He also took
the best things from her house and would not give them back. Mr. Ting thought it best
that she settle her affairs herself but is worried because her mind is not clear sometimes.
"Would you like to see my room?" she leans over and asks me, after she finishes
conversing with Mr. Ting. We join her in the elevator and arrive at the fifth floor. As we
walk through the commons area, she announces to her friends, "Look, a foreign miss has
come to visit me." She says this to everyone she meets and everyone smiles and nods
kindly. We arrive at her room, which is small, about the size of a dormitory room. In it
are two beds and two floor-to-ceiling wardrobes. It is nicely fumished and has one full
sized bathroom. On one of the beds is an elderly woman whom Ms. Ye ignores. Ms. Ye
digs undemeath the blankets on her bed and retrieves a tin and asks, "Would you like
32
some cookies?" The woman on the other bed is calling to Ms. Ye, but Ms. Ye pretends
not to hear. A nurse walking by attends to the older woman.
We admire her room and the brand new facilities in her bathroom. "We must
leave soon. My daughter is expecting us for lunch," Mr. Ting says as he walks to the
door.
"No, please stay. You can have lunch here. We get vegetables, meat, and a soup,"
Ms. Ye says as she walks us to her bedroom door. She leans very close and whispers, "I
don't like this place. They moved that woman in here with me," looking at the occupied
bed. "She is 96 and when she moved in, the staff asked me to look after her. I'm old too!
They should be looking after me. 1 just ignore her." We reached the elevators and Mr.
Ting wishes her well and convinces her not to take the elevator down with us (Shanghai
City, September 3, 2001).
In Limbo
Since China has mandated a nation-wide one-child-per-married-couple policy,
there have not been enough children bom to financially support the elderly. This makes
the government responsible for caring for a large population of aging citizens who have
no children, like Ms. Ye, or whose only child is overburdened by the responsibility. The
elderly are expensive for a developing country like China. Costs such as medical care can
become staggering for an elderly population that no longer pays into the medical care
system but continues to withdraw from it. The official retirement age for Chinese males
is 60 years old and 50 years old for females (West 1999). Once a person retires he or she
33
may decide not to be productive and contribute to the society even if he or she is still
able. Sometimes retired people will rejoin the workforce on a temporary or part-time
basis to cam some extra money to supplement their pensions. The time between
retirement and death can be a difficult time for both the elderly and their families. The
transition into old age is difficult since it corresponds to a loss of power or a lowering of
status within the family. This lowering of status does not result in lowered respect
towards the elderly but rather is purely economic. Eisdorfer (1981:xv) states, "the social
rank of the old is determined by the balance between the cost of maintaining them and the
contribution they are perceived as mziking."
Harrell (1981) conducted field research in the mral area of northem Taiwan (a
republic of China) and found that the male members of a family have a very difficult time
accepting aging in this patrilineal society since there can be but one head of the
household and that is usually the father or the eldest son. He found that after retirement
the men begin to feel sad and useless at being edged out of the power they enjoyed as
patriarchs. This is a result of their inability to contribute economically to the family. The
decline in a father's power over his family is a difficult adjustment, especially if his sons
decide to divide the household, breaking away from the joint family into nuclear ones. In
his fieldwork, Harrell (1981:200-205) found that Chinese fathers mle the family with
strictness and reserved affection and, as a result, when the father grows old the son
provides for him out of respect and some fear, but not out of genuine love. Women, on
the other hand, adjust more easily to retirement. Chao (1983:84) noted that, "the social
relations of father and son and mother and son are a compromise between patemal
34
discipline and filial respect, and matemal tendemess and filial affection...children
cherish their mother and respect their father."
Harrell found that because of their lowered status compared to young men,
women did not have much power early in life; therefore, they had much less power to
lose as they got older. He also found that as sons grew older, they developed genuine
bonds of affection and love for the mother due to the nurturing she had provided. On the
other hand, their feelings for their fathers stemmed from the economic hold their father
had had over them (Abbott, Ming & Meredith 1992:46). Also, according to Harrell,
women in their old age were still active participants in the family by helping their
daughters-in-laws with household duties and looking after children (Hayward & Wang
1993:8). Her active participation in the family, coupled with her son's affection for her,
allowed her to act with less restriction and formality, and gives her a position of freedom
and power that she has never held before. She finds that in her old age, "she is freer than
almost anybody but small children and the village idiots" (Harrell 1981:207). Her
position in the family has become stable, unlike her husband's, but they are both consoled
in knowing that they will not be completely deprived as long as they have children.
New Traditions
Compared to the past, lineage pattems are now in the shape of an inverted
pyramid because of the One-Child Policy. This inverted pattem is in danger of financially
mining the younger generation, who find it more difficult to support the elderly than
before. In order to prevent financial disaster the Chinese government has set up laws and
35
systems to help maintain its citizens and the One-Child Policy. 'The Constipation of the
People's Republic of China,' article 49, states, "parents are duty bound to bring up and
educate their minor children and children are duty bound to support their parents after
they grow up" (Hayase & Kawamata 1991:224). China has made it mandatory for
children to take care of their aging parents and grandparents. Parents can legally sue their
children for ill treatinent, abandonment, and for withholding provisions. The Chinese
government does not consider it abandonment to place the elderly in nursing or
retirement homes as long as the bills are paid. Yet, in the past, it would have been
considered cmel and unfilial to separate aging or ailing parents from their family (Harrell
1981:199). Now it is considered a necessity because children cannot give adequate care
to these parents. Even though times have changed and retirement homes are no longer
seen as abandonment of one's parents, it is still financially difficulty to place them there.
The Chinese government expects every elderly person with a child to be taken
care of by that child. This includes children by adoption and children conceived out of
wedlock. According to China's Marriage Law, Articles nineteen and twenty, "Children
bom out of wedlock enjoy rights equal to those bom in wedlock...the state recognizes the
legitimacy of relationship created by adoption" (Hayase & Kawamata 1991:228) (see
Appendix C). There are problems created by this law. The Chinese government will not
take over the care of elderly citizens who have surviving children, but it does not consider
the nature of each individual child and whether the he/she is willing to provide for his/her
parent(s). Parents have legal rights to sue their children for negligence, but they seldom
do so. However, this does not mean that the elderiy are at the mercy of their children.
36
Some are financially independent and can take care of themselves. Most have stable
pensions from employment before retirement to help support themselves.
However, the old pension system, which was first adopted in the 1951, is
somewhat unreliable (West 1999). This is because the system is limited primarily to
government employees, party organizations, state-owned enterprises, and urban
collectives. This old pension system offered life-time pensions upon retirement once the
retiree has accumulated at least twenty years of employment (West 1999). As time went
on, the government found itself paying more and more in pensions as collective work
units were not able to meet and retain the funds needed to pay the pensions. The old
system began to leave many people without pensions, as China shifted into a marketoriented economy in the 1980's (West 1999). The flaws in this system became apparent
in 1998 after firms experienced financial difficulties and were forced to reduce, delay, or
cancel pension benefits (West 1999), so the Chinese government introduced a new
nationalized pension system.
The new system works in a similar way to the Social Security system and other
retirement fund systems in the United States. It works on a pay-as-you-go system where
it "consists of social pooling and individual fund accumulation, with money coming from
employers and employees," and each must deposit money into the accounts regularly
(Anonymous 2000). The government uses the current generation's money to support the
generation before it. This new system covers urban workers across all enterprise
ownership types, including both government and private sectors (West 1999). Workers
make contiibutions and the government, as the pension guarantor, contributes as needed.
37
"Employers are required to contribute a percentage of total payroll and employees a
percentage of their wage income" (West 1999). However, this new system is beginning
to show signs of cracking from the pressure of a growing elderiy population. In 1999, it
was estimated that China would nped $217 billion US dollars to keep the current system
afloat (Ngai 2000), and by the end of June 2000, 64% of the country's total retirees
would be collecting their pensions.
Those elderly citizens who have no surviving children or grandchildren are wards
of the state. The govemment provides financially for them. This includes lodging, food,
clothing and shoes, basic necessities, a monthly stipend, and even birthday and New Year
gifts. There are situations where the childless have to pay for half of their care, as in the
case of Ms. Ye, but their pensions from their former employer will pay for the other half
Other expenses such as medical costs, can become costly and China has devised a plan to
cover this as well.
Wen Ting explained to me that there is a new nationalized medical plan for the
citizens of China beginning in 2001. Retirees in Shanghai, no matter the age, receive 600
yuan (equivalent to US $75) annually to cover their medical fees. When this is used up
the retiree has to pay ten percent of all fees incurred. Under this new plan, anyone who is
not retired receives 370 yuan (US $42) per year for health care purposes and anj^hing
over that amount is paid entirely by the patient. The theory behind this nationalized plan
is that non-retirees have jobs so they can afford the extra expenses such as health care,
but retirees no longer hold jobs so they need govemment assistance to pay for health care.
Wen feels that this plan is unfair because a few years ago many people all over China
38
took early retirement at age 45. At that time, the nation had too many people and not
enough jobs (Hayward & Wang 1993:6). She feels that the nationalized medical plan for
elderly people should be used for the tmly elderly and not the middle-aged. Yet she and
the rest of the Ting family take advantage of this new system. Mr. Ting is healthy and
seldom goes to the hospital so members of the Ting family use his medical card for
retirees when they become sick, to avoid paying the high medical and pharmaceutical
costs. This system has been in place since January 2001 and there is still much confusion
on the adminisfrative end. There are virtually no checks and balances and anyone can use
a retiree's card to receive inexpensive health care. Even a female anthropologist from the
United States with a bad case of the flu can pass for a 79-year-old man.
For now, the govemment is trying to deal with the issue of who takes care of the
elderly and how they should be taken care of The process seems to be one of trial and
error, with policies made or amended as problems surface. There is a compromise
between govemment and family. The government has in effect taken over the role of
caregiver for those who have no living relatives, but those belonging to the older
generation still rely on their children for support at this point. This is because the current
first generation elderly men and women still hold on to traditional beliefs. They were
bom in the early part of the twentieth century, before the revolution, so the idea that
children are a parent's insurance for old age is still commonly believed. This puts more
pressure on the families caught in the middle of caring for the old and raising the young.
The government's easing of the financial burden is only one relief, but it still does not
compensate for the lack of companionship and emotional support that the elderly feel
39
when their children have no other choice than to place them in a home. For them, there is
no substitute for the "/Y «ao" or the hot and noisy commotion of family life.
40
CHAPTER IV
AGING {LAO HUA)
Health Issues
I arrived in Shanghai on July 13, 2001, the same day Hui Ting was admitted to the
hospital. One month prior to my arrival, Hui had found lumps in her one of her breasts,
but she ignored them. After the lumps continued to grow, she could ignore them no
longer. Her family finally convinced her to go see a doctor. Two days after my arrival,
the doctors performed a biopsy and discovered the lumps were malignant tumors. The
medical staff immediately took her back into the operating room to perform a
mastectomy. Her husband, Fii, slept very little during those two weeks she was in the
hospital. During that time he went to work everyday (he was a manager in a constmction
supplies company), and every night he stayed by his wife's side at the hospital. He went
from work straight to the hospital, making necessary stops every other day to pick up
laundered clothes and personal items that he or his wife might need. He spent his nights
on a cot in the comer of her hospital room and in the morning he left her bedside only to
go back to work. Those two weeks were very hard on him and the Ting family.
One morning Hui's daughter, Yan, was on her way to visit her mother in the
hospital and invited me to go along. Yan is nineteen years old and she had begun her
studies in a trade school to become a tour guide for Japanese tourists visiting China. She
discontinued her education when her mother became ill. She had been taking care of the
household chores since her mother's hospitalization. This was a new experience for her
41
considering she had never cooked, washed, or cleaned during her entire adult life. She
told me tiiat her mother had taken care of everything before she became ill. She confessed
that cleaning was not a problem for her, but apparentiy, cooking was. She explained that
she once tried to make fried rice but instead of adding salt she added sugar and instead of
soy sauce, she added ketchup. She proudly explained that even though the rice turned out
inedible, her father ate a bowl of it in a good natured way, just to encourage her. For fear
of her starving, her father arranged for her to take her meals at her grandfather's (Mr.
Ting's) table. As it tumed out, Yan soon found out that she would not have to do much
more housework. Her father told her that he would hire someone to take over that job as
soon as her mother was released from the hospital.
Hui decided to hire her sister-in-law, who is married to Hui's eldest brother, to
take care of her and to do the housework. Both Hui's brother and his wife live in the
countryside where there is no comparison with the comforts of Shanghai. Hui pays her
sister-in-law 300 yuan (US $38) per month to take care of the cooking and cleaning for
seven days a week. She originally requested the help of her niece. Hui felt her niece
would follow directions better because of her youth, but her brother sent his wife instead.
This later made Hui feel awkward. She began to feel disconcerted at having to give
orders to her sister-in-law who is much older than her. She also began to feel finstrated
when her sister-in-law insisted on being treated as a servant by taking meals separately
from the rest of the family. Hui began to worry that people might accuse her of
mistreating her sister-in-law so in the end, Hui decided to send her sister-in-law back to
the countryside and the housework was divided between Yan and Fu.
42
When Yan and 1 got to the hospital, the guards at the gate would not let us in
because it was not yet visiting hours. Yan and 1 walked a couple of blocks to her uncle's
noodle stand and told him the situation. He walked with us back to the hospital and we
walked right through the gate without any problems from the guard. Apparently her uncle
was also a patient at the hospital. He had broken his arm just a few days before our visit
so the guards knew him. He took us up the elevators and onto the second floor. We
stopped outside of Hui's room and knocked but no one answered. We saw her shuffling
down die hallway towards us. Her brother gave her a frown and said, "We told you not to
wander around. You should stay in bed and rest."
Hui smiled and said, "I'm not an invalid. It gets so boring in that room by
myself" Hui is extremely lucky that she has a room to herself Most other patients share
rooms with up to eight patients because they cannot afford the private room that she has.
Her room is small and poorly fumished but she has a bathroom of her own and her room
also has air-conditioning. She is also extremely lucky because just three months prior to
her surgery she had purchased insurance from a man selling it door-to-door. At the time
her husband was trying to get rid of the man, but she invited him in and listened to what
he had to say and decided that she and her family needed medical insurance. Who knew
that just a couple months later she would find lumps in her breasts and would put the
insurance to good use? She told me that she felt she had "eamed big money" because she
had only made three payments before the company had to start paying her. The insurance
paid for her surgery and part of her private room. Things such as dmgs were also covered
under her insurance plan, but certain brand name dmgs were not covered and, if she
43
wanted a specific brand, she would have to pay the difference after her insurance paid the
amount allotted for the brand they recommended. Her insurance company also gave her a
check for 30,000 yuan (US $3,750). Her work unit, from which she had retired a few
years earlier, paid for the things her insurance did not cover.
Hui is an optimistic woman with a good sense of humor about life. She has been
the comforter for her family throughout her battle with breast cancer. She told me, "The
doctors said they've never seen a more cheerful patient going into surgery."
"Weren't you nervous?" I asked.
"1 was very nervous but I knew I had to stay calm for my husband. Fu was falling
apart and crying every time he saw me, and I couldn't let Yan see that I was worried. I
was so afraid that she would be left without a mother. I didn't know how dangerous the
surgery would be and I was afraid I would never see them again, but I tried to make them
less worried by joking with the doctors. The doctors tell me I am doing much better than
the other patients because I don't worry too much about my cancer." She also told me, "I
get so bored in this room that I go visit the other patients when Fii leaves for work. I
know he's befiiended the nurses and they act as his spies because they tell on me when
he comes after work. He gets upset and says I need to stop miming around and rest but
there's no one to talk to when he is not here and I don't want my daughter to stay all day
in a depressing hospital. I know Fu is trying to take care of me but it gets annoying. He
keeps making me eat. I'm getting fat lying in bed and eating every thirty minutes. He
says that he sees how other cancer patients become so thin and frail after chemotherapy.
He believes that they die because of malnourishment. The chemotherapy makes you ill
44
and most patients lose their appetite so he decided 1 needed to eat more and gain weight.
That way, when 1 start my chemotherapy, I can afford to lose the weight." She laughs at
her husband's theory.
Hui also tells me about some of the other patients in the hospital who are also
battling with cancer. "I sneak away when Fu leaves for work. I feel pity for some of these
other ladies down the hall. It is very sad when you hear that one of the ladies you just met
did not make it. One day you are talking to them and the next day they are dead. I am
very lucky that I have insurance. Some of these ladies come from very far away to be
cured and have to pay for everything. One young girl just got married and found out she
has ovarian cancer. Her husband brought her over 2,000 // (kilometers) to be cured. They
left last week but I heard the nurse say that something went wrong and they are on their
way back again. It is so sad. They are so young to have such a burden. At least my
daughter is grown and I don't have to worry about leaving a little girl to her father."
She also tells me, "There is an old woman down the hall and her son is no good.
She is confined to a bed and the nurses have to tum her to keep her from getting
bedsores. Her daughter-in-law takes care of her. Her son does not visit unless he wants
money from his wife and he makes a scene if she does not give him money."
"Why is he like that? Why does he need money from his wife?" I asked
"I think he either drinks or gambles. I don't know. The old woman is in a room
with seven other patients so his wife gives him money so he does not disturb the other
patients. Sometimes I think the old woman should die so she can't see how terribly her
45
son treats her. The old woman's daughter-in-law is good." She sighs and says, ''hdo ren
you hao bao," a Chinese proverb that translates, "good people will be rewarded."
The day we went to visit Hui was a very anxious day for her. She was to receive
her first dose of chemotherapy that day. We went to give her moral support. Throughout
the day visitors came in and out of her room. They were all her relatives. Hui comes from
a large family. She had seven siblings and four of them live in Shanghai. They all came
to help her through her ordeal. When the nurse came in at 10 a.m. we were all trying to
engage her in conversation so she wouldn't think about the pain that she was about to
experience. The nurse came in and took Hui's blood pressure. Then she was hooked up
intravenously to two bags of saline solution to flush out her system, then half an hour
later the nurse came back with a large syringe filled with a red liquid that reminded me of
pancake symp and injected it into her. She had violent reactions to the injection ten
minutes into her treatment. She knew it would happen since the doctors had wamed her
of the symptoms she would have during and after chemotherapy. A few minutes later she
asked us to leave since there were too many of us in the room and she was feeling very ill
(Shanghai City, July 25, 2001).
Baby Boomers
Between the burdens of battling her breast cancer, Hui also worried about her
daughter's well-being and whether she was eating well. Her concems did not extend to
her father-in-law since she knew that he would be taken care of by his other sons and
daughters-in-law. The predicament of being sandwiched between the needs of two
46
generations is a reality Hui's generation must face. Hui's generation often times
sacrifices their own needs for those of their parents or only child. Hui's generation is the
first to be bom under the communist regime. The communists indoctrinated this
generation with the teachings of Mao and tried to redefine the family in China.
Hui's generation, or as I call it, the middle generation, was bom during a baby
boom era, which began a few years after the communist regime took over in 1949.
According to Che (1979:1), the communists' policy was to reshape the traditional family
into what the party thought would prepare them for "the constmction of an industrial
society, which would not be retarded by strong kinship ties." The communists wanted no
competition for loyalty so they campaigned through propaganda. They also implemented
social pressures and forces to make changes in the family, using schools to "indoctrinate
the children and the young people with the ideology of communism" (Che 1979:1). This
was no small task since Confucian kinship relationships had been a part of the life of
Chinese people for over two thousand years. It was obvious that strains would arise
between the people and its govemment if the govemment tried to impose the communist
stmcture of kinship, putting filial piety towards the communist party before one's own
family.
However, to the advantage of the communists, challenges to Confucian values did
not begin in 1949. These challenges begun much earlier, when at the tum of the twentieth
century, westem influences and ideologies were introduced. This infiltration of westem
culture and the Republican Revolution of 1911 helped to overthrow the Qing Dynasty,
and the Nationalist Party acted as starter seeds for the communists to further their cause.
47
The New Culture Movement of 1917 sought to eliminate Confucian ethics that influenced
the adminisfration of China. This movement accused families of human rights violations
by selling their daughters as young wives or concubines, thus preventing the progress of
independence for China (Che 1979:44). It also challenged the old system of patriarchy
and aimed to support radical changes both socially and politically. This was a step
towards the liberation of youths and the acquisition of equal rights and status for women
(Che 1979:44-45).
Traditional Confucian teachings and values emphasize the hierarchy of age and
gender (Bary & Bloom 1999:326-329). Those who are younger must obey the older and
females are under the guidance of males. Through direct contact with the west in the
early 1900s, youths and women began to re-examine their status within the family.
Industrialization also played a role as youths left their peasant surroundings for better
jobs in the cities.
Urbanization together with job opportunities and better living
environment in the city caused a great number of the upper and middle
classes to depart from their original traditional form of family living.
The educated upper and middle classes started their own nuclear
families and thus the dominance of age hierarchy decreased. The
concentration of schools and colleges and newspapers in the city as well
as urban occupational opportunities for women and coeducation
facilitated the changes of the dominance of the age and sex hierarchy in
the traditional family in the 1920s and 1930s. (Che 1979:44)
Commercial capitalism from investments of foreign nations collapsed the
agricultural economy in China and it was later replaced by industry. The industry resulted
in the development of large cities such as Shanghai, and the mass migration of the
peasants into the large cities looking for work. This separated families for long periods of
48
time. While the traditional family stmcture survived in mral areas, it was rapidly
deteriorating in the industrialized cities (Che 1979:45). This meant that the mral migrants
could escape from the dominance of the older generation.
The Japanese invasion of China and Worid War 11 also helped families deviate
from Confucian thought. After eight years of war with Japan (1937-1945), families again
found themselves separated from one another. The migration of refuges tested the core of
die traditional Chinese family (Che 1979:46). Many families lost their main breadwinner
to the larger cities. Mothers were left without husbands to help take care of their parentsin-law and children, but they did receive additional income from the city each month.
In 1949 when the communists took over, private ownership was denounced and
people's communes were established. The families no longer acted as the primary agents
of socialization for the people (Che 1979:60-61); the government took up that task by
separating families and putting them into communes. Acting as the sole patriarch of the
Chinese people, the govemment disciplined its citizens and doled out punishments and
rewards. With the destmction of the traditional patriarchal system, people could be set
free from familial dominance and at the same time the communist govemment would
eliminate a rival for the control of the people. The government encouraged its people to
view the relation between father and son as a social one rather than a hierarchical one.
"Whether a son should obey his father or not will depend on what the father says. If his
teachings are for the revolution, the son will obey him; if not, the son can reject them"
(Che 1979:62). This is clearly a deviation from the traditional Confucian teachings where
a son obeys his father out of duty, regardless of whether his father is right or wrong.
49
The full force of the effect the communist regime had on family stmctures can be
witnessed by die upheaval during the Culttiral Revolution (1966-1972). During the
Cultural Revolution, people's lives were dependent on their class backgrounds. There
was a clear distinction between the bourgeoisie and the proletarians and having any
overseas relatives was immediately a cause for suspicion of being a bourgeois antirevolutionary. Family members tumed other family members over to the Communist
Party in order to prove their loyalty or gain rank. This dismpted the concept of family
loyalty. In extreme cases people were beaten, jailed, or even killed (Wang 1996:32).
Suspicions of friends, neighbors, and even spouses of being anti-revolutionary ran high
during this time. For example, Mrs. Ting listed herself as an only child on her work unit
card to prevent people from discovering she had a sister living overseas. Mr. Ting found
out about this only after I accompanied him to apply for a visa at the Ausfralian
consulate. The visa was denied because Mr. Ting could not prove his relationship with
his nephew. His wife had failed to list a sister in any of her documents. He told me that
everyone was afraid for their lives during the chaos of the Cultural Revolution and that
people couldn't even speak freely in their own homes for fear the neighbors might
overhear and report them to the Communist Party as being anti-revolutionary.
Staying Afloat
Members of the middle generation (the baby boomers) find life in the 21^' century
to be difficult. They are suspended between an older generation who still hold on to the
traditional beliefs and the younger generation who are accustomed to instant gratification.
50
Not only is the middle generation a bridge between these two different worlds, but there
is also a financial responsibility to support both the previous and next generations as well
as themselves. This middle generation experienced hardships during the Cultural
Revolution, through reeducation in the form of intensive labor. Growing up under the
slogan, 'Love your dad and love your mom, but not as much as Chairman Mao' (Wang
1996:108), they had experiences very different from those of the generations before them
Confucianism had been a constant before communist ideology replaced earlier moral
values. This middle generation was taught to put political loyalty ahead of family loyalty
(Che 1979:89) and that the govemment would take care of its people, including the
elderly.
Values such as political loyalty before family loyalty caused problems. More and
more youths began abandoning their parents, thinking it was all right to do so if the
parents' ideology conflicted with that of the communists (Che 1979:63) (see Appendix
D). The govemment, in an effort to secure loyalty among the people through educating
the youth, was also confronted with a growing population of the elderly. The govemment
dealt with this by publishing a series of articles to educate the public. One article
emphasized the close connection of family and life in society. It went on to say:
A family relationship of mutual love would create an orderly and good
life in society. A harmonious family life among its members was an
expression of the spirit of mutual love and care; and a happy family life
could be a reflection of the warmth of the new society.. .family relations,
ethics, and morality are parts of the superstmcture which had to be
changed with the infrastmcture, namely, the economic institution. When
the Party tried to change the traditional filial piety, which put the
interests of the family above those of the people and the country, the
people were wamed that they should not imitate the bourgeois who
51
abandoned their parents and children because they had built their family
relations on the basis of money. (Anonymous 1979:64)
The govemment claimed that only members of the bourgeois class, who were selfish and
ingrained with individualism, would abandon their families, while the proletarians, who
were the laborers for the people, would support the aged, widowed, orphaned, and
disabled as their own.
Laws were established as early as 1950 stating that children would be responsible
for the care of their elderly parents; parents also had a legal obligation to take care of
young children (see Appendices B & C). This put a strain on the middle generation who
had to take care of both the elderly and the young. In the past (pre-1978) all workers
received the same benefits and belonged to the same social class, but now, with the
introduction of capitalist economy, came differing social classes. People now had
unsatisfied needs and wants. In the past however, there were no such needs or wants
because the govemment gave whatever was needed and the people were taught that
material wants were bad.
The current dilemma for the middle generation is to meet the needs and wants of
all three generations with less and less help from the govemment. This generation is
leaming that they can no longer rely on the Chinese govemment for services it previously
provided to help care for the youth and elderly. At the same time they also realize that
they cannot expect that their "singleton" will care for them in their old age. Some people
are lucky enough to have extended family members who can be depended upon in a
crisis. Light duties such as childcare or feeding an extra person are not difficult tasks.
Family members can also help each other financially by pooling resources, but they can
52
only do what they can with limited resources. Those who have the entrepreneur spirit
take risks for the additional luxuries that the new economy brings.
Bright entrepreneurs in Beijing came up with the idea of renting dogs for those
who live in the city. Ten minutes with the dog will cost 10 yuan (US $1.25) (Wang
1996:357). Private institutions are also playing an important part in the lives of the
people. Those who have money can purchase supplemental insurance along with the
meager existing insurance that is provided by the govemment. Also, those who have
already established themselves can finance loans to purchase homes or automobiles
though banks, but privatization also means instability in employment. Whereas before the
govemment guaranteed lifetime employment, now the private companies can fire
employees at will.
Occupations are no longer assigned by the govemment. Citizens are left to
stmggle for themselves as the govemment borrows management skills from the West,
hiring part-time employees in order to avoid paying benefits. The goal of these
companies is to increase their own profit, and profit is gained at the expense and sacrifice
of the employees (Wang 1996:343-353). The increase in volatility for the future has
caused distmst in the govemment and people are scrambling to be included in
government programs before policies change. Foreign investment brings almost
unlimited opportunities as well as despair to the Chinese people. Those who are
uneducated and unskilled are reduced to low wages that can never catch up to the growth
of the economy, while those of the next generation have opportunities to share part of the
global economic pie. This leaves the middle generation stmggling to find new and
53
ingenious ways of providing a stable environment for the aged, a luxurious life for itself,
and ways to satisfy the insatiable youth.
54
CHAPTER V
ONE CHILD ( y / r i / )
Children That Can Do No Wrong
Hui came home to heal after the successful removal of cancerous tumors from one
of her breasts. She had bought medical insurance two months before the tumors were
detected. She realized her good fortune and tried to convince the rest of the Ting family
to purchase insurance as well. This time the door-to-door salesman was welcomed into
the home. Wen bought her son, Zheng, pension insurance and life's milestone insurance
where money is paid at age eighteen (in preparation for college), age 25 (in preparation
for marriage), and age 70 (in preparation for funeral expenses). Ming bought into a
retirement fund. No one else bought medical insurance.
I asked Wen why she purchased pension insurance for her son who is only fifteen
years old when she didn't purchase insurance for her husband or herself who are both
closer to retirement. She told me that her and her husband's retirement fund was secure,
but her son's was not. Her husband Xing said, "The Chinese govemment is always
changing its policies from year to year. My wife and I are protected for now, but any day
the government could say, 'Starting from today anyone under the age of (he made a
gesture indicating "any number you want") has to pay for their own retirement.'
Businesses are being outsourced (contracted for profit) to the foreigners and labor is
being confracted as short-term. There is no guarantee that Zheng will receive a pension
especially if jobs in the future are short-term. There may be a time when he is
55
unemployed, then what will he do? He cannot rely on his pension and he is not
guaranteed a job for life like we were." Both Wen and Xing care deeply about the wellbeing of their son, even if it is at the expense of their own comfort.
Wen is not employed now, but she receives a monthly allowance from her work
unit. This is because of outsourcing, in which the govemment contracts outside
companies to mn a business. Her job no longer exists under the new management so she
was sent home. However, she still receives a percentage of her old salary because the
Commvmist Party guaranteed her lifetime employment and she will also receive
retirement benefits once she reaches retirement age. Wen explained to me that the term
used for people whose job no longer existed is called xia gang. She says xia gang is
becoming more common among unskilled laborers whose jobs are obsolete, because of
the introduction of technology, or because younger workers are willing to work for less
money. Her husband Xing, on the other hand, is unemployed. He gave up his government
issued job many years ago to pursue another career as a taxi driver. His new career as a
driver did not last long after he experienced heart trouble. Without a job, he receives an
unemployment check every month, but that is mnning out since the govemment will only
issue unemployment checks for two years. Wen and Xing's combined income is less than
US $100 per month. Wen tells me that she is relying on her pension once she is 50 years
old to cover other household expenses, but she still worries because Xing has no such
pension to supplement their income. This is because he quit his original job voluntarily
and his second job as a driver did not offer a pension. Once the unemplojonent check
mns out, they will have to find another way to support themselves. Right now, they
56
depend on other sources such as the stock market for additional money, but this can be
unreliable because the market is volatile. They hope that they can make enough money
from the market each month to cover the insurance premiums for their son. Wen and
Xing are like any other parents who are worried about their child's future. They want to
make sure tiiat their child succeeds where they have failed, and they want him to have
what they did not.
Yiin and Ping have similar concems for their son. Hang, who is a high school
graduate without a job. Yiin and Ping are more financially stable than Wen and Xing.
Both husband and wife work. Yiin is a civil servant and Ping is a Chinese pastry chef
They have a combined take home income of approximately US $350 per month. They
also depend on their investments in the stock market to supplement their income so there
is no urgency for Hang to find a job, but their son is grown and they realize that his future
looks bleak, so they have taken upon themselves to pave the way for his fiature.
One day Yiin and Ping sat down to talk to Mr. Ting's neighbor, Mr. Chang, who
was a policeman. Yiin and Ping wanted information on Mr. Chang's experience in the
military. Yiin and Ping decided that their son would have to join the military if he is to
have a future. Later I asked Ping why she wanted her son to join the military. I explained
to her that it was my experience that most parents from Taiwan try to find ways to
prevent their sons from having to serve in the military. She explains, "Taiwan is different
because it is compulsory that every male must serve in the armed forces whereas in
China, there are too many people and the military is turning away people. They only
select the best. I know my son is not the smartest (he actually graduated last in his class).
57
but he is a hard worker and he is honest. He just did not have any interest in school. The
military is his only option. It breaks any parent's heart to see their son working in a
factory for ten, twelve hours a day and make no money. I want him to have a good stable
job and only the govemment can offer that."
She goes on to say, "If he gets into the military, 1 know he will never go hungry
and if he gets assigned to Inner Mongolia, he will only have to serve three years. The
soldiers in Inner Mongolia get paid almost 1,200 yuan (US $150) a month! After he gets
out the govemment will issue him a simple job. At least that way he will be able to
support a family. He can't support a family on a factory worker's wages."
I asked her why so many people in China want to join the military, and she told
me it was because the govemment is an "iron rice bowl" (meaning that it is unbreakable)
so that no matter what happens, a solider will never go hungry or become unemployed.
Her only worry is that she knows her son is not qualified to join the military. She told me,
"Hang's father has been finding guan xi (connections) with anyone he knows who has
leverage in the military. We have a distant cousin who used to be a recmiter in the
Shanghai area. He is retired now but we know he still knows people in that department
and we've talked to him and he has agreed to help us get approval for Hang's enlistment
if he passes his physical. Yiin has also talked to a co-worker whose husband is a high
ranking official and he has also agreed to help anyway he can. This is the only way my
son can get into the military. Everything is about guan xi or money; very few people
make h on talent."
58
I did not understand the urgency for Yiin and Ping to push for their son's
enlistment. They both hoped that they could get Hang enlisted by the end of the year. I
asked Ping why they were in such a hurry and she told me, "We know the government's
policy for this year, but we are not sure what the govemment's policy will be for next
year. We know that soldiers who enlist this year are guaranteed jobs when they get out.
Everything in China is changing so fast that next year they might decide soldiers who
enlisted after this year have to find their own jobs when they finish their tour. What the
govemment says today does not mean it applies to tomorrow."
It is evident that both couples. Wen and Xing and Yiin and Ping, distmst
government policies and are planning for any sudden changes that might occur. After a
few days another problem arises. Hang cannot pass his physical because he does not have
perfect vision. I asked Yiin what they planned to do next. He told me, "We were thinking
of taking him to get his vision corrected with laser surgery. It will be 2,000 yuan (US
$250) per eye, but it has to be done. There are only two laser eye surgery machines in all
of China. One is in Shanghai and the other one is in Canton. We visited a doctor but he
told us that Hang's astigmatism is inoperable with laser eye surgery. This is what
happens when he stays up all night playing video games in the dark. Young people never
listen to what is good for them. My son says he realizes now that he should have listened
to me all those times I told him to sit farther back from the television. Well, it's too late
now. His only option is to memorize the eye chart."
I was surprised at this and asked, "Wouldn't the military notice your son's eye
problem after he enlists?"
59
His reply was, "It does not matter. What matters is that he gets in. If they try to
discharge him, he could always say tiiat his eye problem developed after he got in and if
tiiey decide to discharge him anyway he will still receive benefits and they will still find
him a job." Tme to his word, a few days later Yiin came home with an eye chart for his
son to memorize (Shanghai City, August 2001).
The Five Not So Guarantees
Under the Chinese govemment, between the 1950s through the early 1980s,
employment was guaranteed for life. All Chinese citizens were assigned jobs just as they
were assigned housing and ration cards. The original master plan of the Communist Party
was that of a Utopian society where wealth was distributed equally and no one ever went
hungry. But as industrialization crept into China, more and more people, including the
govemment, emphasized making money rather than providing for the people. At this
point the government began slowly phasing out guaranteed lifetime employment, as in
the case of Wen. In China's early communist ideology, people were expected to take care
of each other through cooperation and teamwork rather than through the current system
of gift or favor exchanges. The govemment made promises to its citizens that it might or
might not be able to keep. The middle generation (baby boomers) of China grew up under
the notion that the government would take care of the people, like a parent for a child,
under all circumstances. This belief was reinforced through the birth limitation
campaigns between the 1960s and the 1980s. The birth limitation campaigns offered wu
bao, or the five guarantees of old age insurance. Every member of the birth limitation
60
program would be guaranteed the five old age benefits: food, clothing, housing,
medicine, and burial expenses, regardless whether they had a male heir or not. The
propaganda at the time was, "Those who had only female children or no children at all
need not wonry: die collective would take care of them" (Wolf 1985:196). However, the
concept tiiat tiie govemment is providing these guarantees is false. What this middle
generation does not realize is that most of them will actually live off their pensions,
which they have eamed, rather than something the government provides.
At the height of the Cultural Revolution, the masses denounced the evils that
defined capitalism. For them, individualism and selfishness were not to be tolerated. The
people were supposed to be working toward harmony and equality. There were not
supposed to be any distinctions between the haves and the have nots, but in reality there
were such distinctions. During the Cultural Revolution, millions of China's youth were
exiled into the countryside to be re-educated in the collectives. After the Cultural
Revolution and between the years of 1977 and 1982, masses of young people retumed to
their urban homes looking for employment but not finding any. Many of them got
married after they came home, only to find that there was not enough housing, which
forced them to temporarily live in their parents' homes (Unger 1993:25-49). As these
newly married couples started to have children, Chinese officials saw that there would be
a population boom and estimated that in order to maintain and educate this population,
they would need one trillion yuan ($121 billion US) (Goodstadt 1982:40). As the Chinese
govemment moved into the late 1970s and early 1980s, it found that it was financially
impossible to provide social services, as a result of this population boom.
61
In tiie late 1970s and eariy 1980s, Chairman Den Xiaoping opened the doors of
China to the Westem worid and welcomed industrialization and its technologies (Wang
1996:208). The irony was that China had come to embrace the characteristics of
capitalism, formally considered degenerate. It would disengage the state from control
over land, labor, and markets. In terms of family reproduction, however. It still demanded
state control over the fertility of more than one hundred million married couples (Davis &
Harrell 1993:4). The collapse of communes as the basic political and economic units of
China, along with the commodification of labor, caused the framework for public welfare
to fall. This in tum, caused welfare funds to shrink and fees for services to increase
(Davis & Harrell 1993:4). Urban parents of the baby boom generation found themselves
paying more school fees, and employers began to exclude services from employees'
health benefits. "Bribes to medical personnel became more ubiquitous, and the cost of
medicines not covered by health plans rose very fast..." (Davis & Harrell 1993:4).
Michael Phillips, a psychiatrist, noticed that the increase in these medical fees caused
tension in urban Chinese families. He found that this tension dismpted the core values of
families as people were tom between "a desire to sacrifice for dependents" and a desire
for "the advancement of the social status of the family" (Davis & Harrell 1993:19).
This new economy caused social discrepancies as the poor got poorer and the rich
became richer and a great gap between social classes began to show. This in itself was
the very thing the communists fought against just a few decades earlier. The entire
country was becoming materialistic. "People of today are dmnk with the new wealth.
They are desperately energetic, but they are also said to be brash, uncaring for their
62
parents, vulgar in their conspicuous life-styles, and lacking moral restrainf' (Siu
1993:166). People could no longer depend on the govemment to keep the promises it
made to its people. It was concemed with profit. It privatized and leased its governmentrun businesses to anyone with money and used this money to expand China's economy.
Policies were constantly changing and the Chinese people began to lose faith. In order to
survive, people had to depend on their family and social connections rather than their
own abilities. When resources were scarce, perhaps only male children might be allowed
to attend school, but by pooling resources together, all children were able to attend
school. Rather than choosing between the sacrifice of the whole family for advancement
of a few members, families are choosing advancement of the whole family without
sacrifice to any individual member. By pooling their resources together they benefited the
whole rather than just a few.
GuanXi
The East has now picked up the managerial practices of the West; by contracting
part-time, short-term, employees the govemment can demand more output without
investing in employee benefits such as insurance or daycare. Employers are contracting
employees simply to increase output. Should the worker not meet the stipulated demands,
the contract can be terminated (Wolf 1985:263). The formeriy unbreakable "iron rice
bowl" has now been broken. The lack of job security has taught people to rely on who
they know and that is where guan xi becomes important. Guan xi implies implicit
networking between people and it does not differentiate between personal and
63
professional relationships (Yang 2000; Yang 1994:1). Guan xi is not only dependent on
personal connections or contacts, it is also dependent on personal debts owned by or
owed to a person and it generally includes some bribery. "To secure guan xi, one has to
pay a reasonable premium; in general, the more important guan xi is, the higher the
premium" (Anonymous 2002). When a favor is accepted, a commitment has been made
to perform a certain duty as a retum favor. The retum favor could be called in many years
after the original favor was granted (Yang 1994:4-5).
Guan xi is more of a work of art than an actual system of debtors and creditors. It
is the art of finagling by using tactics and etiquette, which includes deferential acts,
modest speech, and generosity (Yang 2000:109). Having social standing is not as
important as being charming (Yang 2000:83). Guan xi is used anywhere from getting a
lower price on goods to obtaining employment, housing, or even better medical care
(Yang 2000:75-108).
Guan xi is a form of social network. Studies have been conducted in the United
States to test the role of social networks. Social networks in the U.S., like guan xi, do not
have clear boundaries, and what connects the members of a network is simply the
relationship to other members (Unger & Powell 1980:567). For example, the members of
a social network do not have to belong to the same socio-economic level, gender
category, or occupation. The only thing they might have in common with each other is
that they are each other's social support group.
United States studies have shown that during times of sfress and crisis such as the
Great Depression, world wars, and disasters, families who pooled their resources together
64
had a better time coping with the situation than isolated families (Unger & Powell
1980:567). There are also studies that show social networks act as buffers to protect
people from stressful situations and promote psychological health (Cohen & Wills
1985:310). In essence, social networks function to: (1) help members with material goods
and services such as money, (2) convey emotional support such as esteem, and (3) help
members locate aid outside of their immediate family such as friends or neighbors (Unger
& Powell 1980:569). Guan xi works the same way.
Establishing good guan xi within a person's own family is as important as
establishing it with outside sources. A woman being interviewed on the subject of
childcare for her grandchild claims she fraveled a long distance to take care of her
newbom grandchild for several months, leaving her husband and an unmarried son
behind, and then eventually bringing her grandson back with her so that she might take
care of him. When asked why she did all this, her reply was, to "maintain a good
relationship with her sons in hopes that they would reciprocate when needed" (Siu
1993:184). In urban China, mothers are doing less of the childcare than in previous
generations. Children can be left in daycare, or more often than not, in the care of a
relative. As discussed previously, this is a way for retired grandmothers to continue to be
included in the family by contributing through childcare. Socially supporting family
members is mutually beneficial to all its members. From the above example we can see
that not only does the grandmother feel needed, but the son and daughter-in-law also
receive help in childcare. By accepting the grandmother's help, the son and daughter-inlaw now owe the grandmother and will be indebted to her. The grandmother now expects
65
to be taken care of in her old age as a repayment of that debt. Among the recipients of the
benefits of the social support system is also the child, who the grandmother looks after. It
is beneficial for the child to be taken care of by a family member rather than an
institution (Cohen & Wills 1985:311). Particular efforts at social support create overall
family cohesiveness.
66
CHAPTER VI
MARRIAGE AND FAMILY {CHEN JlA)
Views on Marriage and Family
During tiie months I stayed with the Ting family I noticed that Yan seldom left
her home. In fact, I only witnessed one occasion where she left her home other than
visiting her mother in the hospital, and that was to job search. Otherwise, she stayed at
home all day every day. She lived in a two-bedroom apartment with her parents, Fu and
Hui. One day I went to visit Yan to ask how her job search was coming along. She was
still in her pajamas waiting for her aunt Wen to bring her lunch from next door. I asked
her why she didn't go out with friends her own age. She told me that she didn't like going
out and preferred to stay at home to read and play video games. She also said most of her
fii ends had jobs and she felt uncomfortable asking them to take time off just to keep her
company. I teased her and said that she will never find a husband if she didn't go out
more often.
I asked her what she expected out of a mate and she told me, "My mother told me
that I need to marry someone just like my father, someone who is nice and compassionate
so he will take care of me. She said that looks do not matter. We both make fun of how
ugly my father is, but we know that he is a good person. My mother told me, 'Look at
your aunt Wen, she married a man who looked pretty but he doesn't have a job and he
has a really bad temper. Your father, on the other hand, is not much to look at but he is
the best husband I could ask for, so you need to choose someone who will be good to you
67
like your father is to me.' She is right; my father might not be pretty but he is the best
father so I would like to find someone just like him."
"How do you expect to meet your ftittire husband if you do not go out and if you
don't have a job?" 1 asked
She said, "I'm not in a hurry to find a husband now. I'm not allowed to get
married by law until I'm 23 years old; besides, it does not matter if I marry or not as long
as 1 have my family. 1 can live with my parents for the rest of my life and be happy."
"Don't you ever get lonely and want to get away from your family? And what
happens when your parents get older? You can't stay with them forever," 1 said.
"Why would 1 want to get away from my family? My mother is the only
companion I need." She boasts, "If I do get married I will expect my husband to move
with me back to my nidngjia (literally mother's home) to stay with my parents. I don't
know what I would do without my peirents."
Yan has a childlike view of how things should be when it came to marriage. She
feels that when the time comes for her to be married, a husband will automatically appear
and they will move in with her parents and live happily ever after. What she thinks
marriage should be and what it is likely to be are not the same thing. I met a married
woman by the name of Mrs. Le during my stay with the Ting family. Mrs. Le works as a
court judge emd is a co-worker of Yiin Ting. Mrs. Le is 25 years old and newly married.
She invited me to her home, which was still under renovation when we arrived.
"How did you get to become a judge at such a young age? In the United States,
you have to go to school for an undergraduate degree before you can go to law school. It
68
takes another three years before you can get a law degree and then you have to practice
law many more years before you can become a judge," 1 said.
"It is different in China," she replied, " Once you graduate from high school, you
can choose your profession and go to the college that specializes in it, as long as you have
high enough test scores. 1 went to law school right after high school. When you get your
law degree you can choose to have a job assigned to you or you can go out looking for
your own job in private practice. It is better to work for the govemment because you
don't have to chase after clients and your job is guaranteed. My scores were high enough
to get me a job as a judge."
We chatted as we walked through her home. She and her husband had originally
been allocated a one-bedroom apartment and, based on my calculations, the original size
was about 500 square feet. The original apartment had two bedrooms, a bathroom, a
dining room, and a kitchen the size of a closet. Now the walls were knocked out and there
was dust everywhere. She and her husband shopped around town to get the best deal on
building supplies to save on the marked-up prices the contractors charge for materials.
They purchased the supplies themselves and transported the supplies back to their home
to cut more costs. She showed me a tattered notebook with everything that she and her
husband had purchased, including the price, the amount of material, where they bought it,
and whether the material came with a warranty. She said, "You have to be conscientious
about what you buy. That way you know what you are getting because you are doing the
shopping yourself and the confractors won't try to sell you something that is not good.
We've been going everywhere comparing prices but that is good because if something
69
goes wrong we can always rettim the materials while the warranty is still valid. The
contractors come and go and you might never be able to find them again!"
She told me that she and her husband had good fortune on their side because the
apartment next to theirs was empty. Apparently no one wanted it because it was only 150
square feet. She and her husband decided to purchase the apartment from their work unit
and then open the walls and walk ways between the two apartments to make it into a
large three-bedroom apartment. She showed me the room she was using while the
constmction continued in her house. The room was large enough to fit one twin sized bed
and one collapsible wardrobe. The door, when opened, nudged the cloth wardrobe.
"This is the second bedroom," she said, "my husband and I take tums sleeping in
it because it is not big enough for both of us. One of us has to be here to monitor the
progress of the workers and make sure they are doing things right. If I stay here, then he
sleeps at his mother's house and, if he stays here, then 1 have to sleep at my mother's
house. It makes us both so tired and we've been arguing a lot more lately. I'll be so glad
when we can get settled."
"Are you plarming to use this second bedroom as a nursery?" I asked.
"I think for now we will use it as a guest bedroom, when my mother comes to
visit," she told me.
"Aren't you and your husband planning to have a baby?" I asked.
"We're not really planning to have a baby, but if one comes along that will be
fine. It is just that with so many other financial strains, having a baby would not really
help. Of course, I wouldn't be against it if later on we decided to have a baby, but it
70
would not matter to me if we didn't have one either. Buying and decorating my home has
cost so much money and we have his parents and my parents to consider. There really
isn't any money left over for a baby. Both my husband and 1 are young and we would
like to have the option of having a baby but it is not a priority right now," said Mrs. Le. I
didn't ask whether Mrs. Le practiced birth control but I assumed she did since she was
also the birth planning "matron" at her work unit (see Appendix B).
"How did you meet your husband?" I asked.
"We went to the same school and my friends knew his friends and so we were
introduced to each other. We were friends for long time and it just became natural that we
should get married. Of course we didn't have any money so after we were married he
stayed at his parents' house and I stayed at mine. It was ridiculous. It took almost six
months for our work units to provide us with housing and then we purchased the
apartment next door and had to remodel everything. Everything costs so much! This year
has been really tough on both of us."
We toured the rest of her apartment and she proudly pointed out that she had two
bathrooms, which is a luxury not many people can afford. "I think we will both be
happier when we can move out of our parents' homes. That way we can visit our parents
but not have to live with them" (Shanghai City, July & September 2001).
Marriage
The marriage of two people has not always been the simple act of joining two
individuals in Chinese society. Instead, it was the union of two families. In the past,
71
property was held in tmst for the generations of descendents living under one roof
Therefore, the selection of a bride to continue the lineage was a family affair and was
seldom, if ever, left up to the individual who was to be married. Marriage was not for
personal happiness but was rather a duty and obligation that must be consummated for
the benefit of the kinship group. "Free choice of a partner would threaten the dominance
of parental affection, loyalty, and authority... "(Wong 1981).
Jack Goody's (1976 & 1990) model of the evolution of famihes includes the
importance of property in shaping the functions of a family. For the family, marriage was
a central focus of sfrategic thinking, where alliances, social status, and expansion of the
family and property were taken into consideration. Weddings were occasions where
families could show off their wealth. Bride prices and dowries were used as status
symbols. The festive wedding banquet was less for the married couple than it was for the
two families being joined. The more ostentatious the banquet, the more prestige and
"face" the families gained.
During the Mao era, the practices associated with the institution of marriage were
dictated by the Chinese govemment (see Appendix B) and private property no longer
existed.
It is through your unit that you get ration cards for meat, grain, cloth,
appliances, and scarce items of furniture. Your [work] unit must approve
your marriage plans, your fertility plans, your housing; if brought to
their attention, even your martial problems may be subject to group
discussion. (Wolf 1985:58)
China's Marriage Law abolished the feudal marriage systems and promoted free choice,
monogamy, and equal rights for both sexes; bride price was viewed as a means for
72
prestige building or as "shrewd calculations to obtain a woman's labor" (Siu 1993:177).
The Chinese govemment strongly opposed the class system. Ostentatious weddings were
seen as a way to flaunt wealth and this was considered to be cormpt by the Chinese
govemment. Fewer couples had wedding banquets and even fewer people were being
invited to such events. "Guests could attend wedding dinners only in small groups
because the town leadership explicitiy limited the number of banquet tables to four per
gatiiering" (Sui 1993:177).
A wedding in China today is not a simple undertaking. Even though the Chinese
govemment preferred weddings to be a simple affair of tea parties (Davis 1993:65) and
frowned upon the lavish show at weddings, such events are making a comeback in
contemporary China. A decade of anti-class differentiation thought brought on by the
Cultural Revolution cannot dissuade Chinese people from having festive celebrations to
mark this passage of life. Bride prices and dowries are no longer essential demands of
families in urban areas, since marriage is no longer used as a strategy for the betterment
of the family. However, even without a bride price or dowry, the basic gifts are the same
now as it was in the past where
a big banquet, a large trousseau, and a complete bedroom set were the
minimum purchases necessary for a socially acceptable wedding.
Anything less not only made the family lose face, it also could cause the
children to claim parental selfishness or neglect, and thus justify children's
distancing themselves from parents and fiHal obligations. (Davis 1993:65)
The business of "marrying off the children is still the parent's most grave concem and it
is taken seriously. The duty of the parent is complete once the child has married and
established his/her own family. No expense is spared. The average wedding costs
73
anywhere between three to five months' of a family's (not individual's) income (Davis
1993:65). The lavishness is also a way of showing the love and affection parents have for
their children. Even so, most young couples today do pay a substantial part of the
wedding costs themselves (Whyte 1993:204-205). While weddings are considered
bothersome, remaining single is unthinkable. Being single in China is not an option.
Single people are considered to be "social misfits, doomed to a life sentence in a
collective dormitory with smelly latrines and no kitchen. Even gays.. .married the
opposite sex" (Wang 1996:181).
Presently, young adults have the power to select their own mates. Men and
women are no longer separated because of social constraints but are free to establish
relationships through courtship. However, they still take their parents' advice into
account when deciding whether to marry a particular person (Unger 1993:37). Wolf
(1985:154) believes this is because the young adults create unrealistic images of
marriage, so they need their parents' help to accept compromises and reject inappropriate
candidates. It is tme that young couples take into consideration their parents' opinions on
potential marriage partners, but youth are no longer required to honor the marriage thenparents would have arranged for them during the pre-Mao era. The current problem in
China is not whether a child will marry, but whether a child can marry. There is currently
a very uneven male to female ratio in China. As of 2001 the Cenp-al Intelligence Agency
estimates that there are 106 males for every 100 females (Central Intelligence Agency
2001). Based on these numbers there is a possibility that 35 million males will be
brideless. The sex imbalance has already caused social problems in mral areas. Since
74
urban cities attract unattached women with the prospect of "marrying up," mral men are
left witii a slim selection of women. Some mral men resort to buying wives while others
outright kidnap them (Wang 1996:326-327). Bride trafficking has become a lucrative
market in rural areas, but this is a last resort. As one man puts it, "The women in our
village all want to marry someone in the city" (Wang 1996:327). This leaves men littie
choice but to go to extremes to find a wife. As for the law, one official from the Women's
Federation of China states, "If a woman is sold, and she puts up with it, h is legal under
die Marriage Law" (Wang 1996:327).
Parents Give Children Youth Security
The traditional days of parents having children for old-age security have gone.
Now it is the children who depend on the parents to help them get through their years of
family life. Some couples, even after marrying and having children, depend on their
parents for support. This is especially tme when it comes to housing. Shanghai, China is
growing at a phenomenal rate. New city maps are published every few months and old
sfreets are replaced with new ones. Constmction is endless and it is said that the most
common bird sighted in Shanghai is the constmction crane. However, even with the
city's massive constmction projects, there is still a housing shortage. Mrs. Le's case of
separate residences for her and her husband is not unusual. Housing in China is
dishibuted based on the degree of crowding. Priority is given to tiiose who are living m
emergency situations where families are crowded to as little as two or three square meters
(18 or 27 square feet) per resident. In such a case, a one-room apartment contained three
75
or more generations (Davis 1993:70). However, even with these low cutoff points, there
are more families that qualify for new housing than there are new housing facilities
available.
The original intent of public housing in the 1950s was to encourage new families
to reside separately from the previous generations, but because of the housing shortage,
the opposite has taken place (Whyte 1993:197). Newlyweds apply for housing from their
work unit, but they are generally deemed low priority due to the fact that they form twoperson households with little seniority in the workplace. As a result, most newly married
couples crowd into their parents' existing household, thus moving the entire household
up the priority list for new housing (Davis 1993:71). The typical situation once the family
receives new housing is that the parents allow the newly married couple to live in the new
apartment while the parents remain in the original one (Davis 1993:71). Young people in
the post-Mao era are becoming more dependent on their parents for both social and
financial support (Unger 1993:38). Young people are low in priority in a society that
rewards seniority for everything from pay raises to housing allotments. Children depend
on their parents' seniority in Chinese society for their necessities. A young person is not
paid as much as an older person and therefore cannot save as much. This is when the
parents step in to help their children.
Unger (1993) found that married children still receive financial help from their
parents even after they've moved out of their parents' homes. He found that married
children often give gifts of money to their parents as a way of showing filial respect, but
that the parents also subsidize the children and give much more money in retum to help
76
support their children's families (Unger 1993:41). Aside from financial help, parents also
offer themselves in other capacities as well. As discussed in Chapter 11, elderly women
often help their children with household chores or look after their children's children.
When young urban parents work full time, they seek help from their parents (namely
mothers) for daily childcare. As families live further apart they have a tendency to
interact like an extended family (Unger 1993:42). Chinese social scientists have coined
the term "enwebbed" or "networked families" to describe this situation (Unger 1993:42).
While living in different homes, the children will strive to remain geographically close to
their parents so that both parties can maximize benefits. As one sensible woman puts it,
"Marry someone who lives nearby. That way you can help both sets of parents as they get
old without wasting a lot of time and money taking the bus back and forth" (Wolf
1985:157).
Chinese elderly have a fear of abandonment and, unfortunately, the One-Child
Policy does not ease their fears of losing their only child to another family once that child
is married (Unger 1993:43). The institution of "networked famihes" could release the
elderly from such fears by providing necessary roles for each member of the family,
whether it is breadwinner or caretaker. Based on law (see Appendix C), there is a
possibility that one married couple might be required to support up to nine people, not
including themselves. These nine people may include their only child, both sets of
parents, and perhaps a few grandparents (four generations). This cannot be done without
the efforts of a collective family. By pooling their resources and networking together,
they are finding ways of taking care of each other without feeling the parasitic drain of
77
any one individual. As in the case of Mrs. Le, there are couples who are beginning to
reconsider the merits of adding an additional burden to the family in the form of a child.
Under the current policy, if an only-child marries another only-child, then the couple is
allowed to give birth to two children, but many do not want any children at all (Pomfret
2000). In fact, the phenomenon of double income families with no children is a new
concept for the Chinese. "Ambitious young couples don't think they would have the time
or money to raise more than one child" (Lev 2000). As more couples reconsider the
justification of having children and as the population dwindles, we might begin to see
changes in the One-Child Policy.
78
CHAPTER VII
ONLY CHILD {DUSHEMG ZINU)
Expectations of a Father
"Where is that child? He knows he is supposed to come straight home from
school. It is after dinner. See what happens when he goes and plays? He goes crazy and
even forgets to come home and eat!" Xing rants as he paces back and forth from the
living room to the kitchen. He occasionally paces to the elevators in the commons area (a
space that is shared by all the tenants on that floor) looking for his fifteen - year - old son
Zheng. Wen had taken the bus to her son's school right before dinner, about 5:30 p.m.,
because he had not come home yet. She thought his teacher might have held him behind
to do extra work, but she found out that school had let out at the regular time of 3:45 p.m.
By 7:30, the entire Ting family was worried. Zheng, the only son of Wen and Xing, has
not called home nor did he tell anyone before he left for school where he was going to be
or when he would be coming home.
Ping says to anybody that would listen, "You shouldn't even let him have any
time to himself That child is wild. He does not do well enough in school to be rewarded
to go and play. You (Wen) should wait outside the school gates before they are let out
and bring him sfraight home so he does not mn off with those other kids. That is what I
did with Hang and he didn't go astray. You (Wen) dote on that child. He doesn't know
his limits; that is why when you let him play for one hour he goes for the whole day."
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"What is going on?" Hui, who shuffled in from next door, asks. "What is
everyone so excited about?" Fu is chasing after Hui with a bowl of duck bone soup and
telling her to stop running around and go back to bed before she undoes her stitches.
Xing tells Hui that Zheng had not come home from school yet. "Leave that child
alone," Hui says to Xing, "He is only fifteen years old. He needs to be with children his
own age. You are too strict with him; he has no breathing room! No wonder he tries to
get away whenever he can. He is a child, let him play with his friends."
Xing replies, "He doesn't need any friends. He doesn't deserve any fiiends. He is
a student and he should only be worried about doing well in school. That is his job and
responsibility as a student. What does he need fiiends for? Friends will not help him
make good grades! I spent 600 yuan this summer so he can be tutored and do better in
school and all he can think about is playing."
Wen is silent the entire time. Ming looks at me and says in a quiet voice, "That
child is hopeless. Why have children when they are going to end up like this? His parents
are at fault too. His mother is too lenient and his father is not reasonable. They are going
to have a real problem with him. I can tell he will tum bad if they don't do something."
Right before 8:00 p.m., the front door creaks open. Wen mshes to greet her son
and ushers him out of Mr. Ting's kitchen and upstairs into their own home. Xing mns
after them and his shouting in the commons area can be heard all the way into Mr. Ting's
living room. "Where have you been, huh? You know you are supposed to come straight
home after school! You did not have permission to stay out!" Somehow the shouting ends
back in Mr. Ting's kitchen. There is a loud cry and now Zheng is tearfully shouting.
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"You are all against me! No one likes me!" From the living room, Mr. Ting, Ming, and I
all hear a loud slap. 1 stand up and Ming tells me not to get involved. Mr. Ting stands up
and goes to his kitchen. Then everything happens very fast. Before Mr. Ting reaches his
kitchen, there is a sound of a body being pushed onto the ground and a loud cry from
Zheng, "I'm going to kill you!"
"Go ahead," shouts Xing, "What are you going to do with the knife? You don't
have tiie nerve." Hui, Fu, and Yan all msh in from next door. I meet Yan by the
batiiroom. She is leading a bloody-faced Zheng to the toilet to spit out the blood. I see
Mr. Ting out of the comer of my eye shouting at his son-in-law. Both Hui and Fu are
pointing their fingers and shouting at Xing. "He is just a child! You can't hit him like
that!" "You are bigger than him." (Zheng weighes approximately 80 pounds.)
Mr. Ting becomes so angry that he leaves his home to cool off Wen takes Xing
back to their home upstairs. Yan and I clean up Zheng and makes a cold compress for his
face. "His father has such a bad temper," Yan says, "I don't know what I'd do if my
father hit me. My father only spanked me once when I was little. He used a soft house
slipper and I cried so hard that he hit himself with the slipper to show me that it didn't
really hurt." We lead Zheng into Mr. Ting's bedroom so he can lie down.
Fu comes in to look after his nephew. He says stemly, "It's your fault too, you
know. You should have called to say where you were or told someone when you would
be coming home. Your parents were very worried about you. Did you know your mother
went all the way to your school to bring you dinner because she thought your teacher held
you up? How can your parents tmst you to go out if you are not responsible? It is fine
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that you go out to play with your fiiends, but you need to know your limit. At least come
home and eat dinner." He pats his nephew on the head. "I'm not saying your father was
right either. He shouldn't have hit you, but you know his temper and you should have
come home early."
Wen comes in to look over her son and takes him upstairs for bed.
The next moming after Wen sends Zheng off to school, she tells me, "That man
has such a bad temper and he always takes it out on Zheng. Did you see what he did to
tiiat child?" I ask if her husband hit Zheng often. Wen tells me that her husband hits her
son often enough to give him chronic spontaneous nose bleeds. "He always aims for the
face," she tells me. "I have to say my son is at fault too. He held a knife at his father!
When 1 took him up to bed last night he knew he was wrong and told me he was sorry for
holding a knife against his father. I knew he was a stubbom child when at age three he
jumped off of a moving bicycle in the middle of traffic, just because he wanted a
particular piece of candy. His father spanked him, but he just kept jumping off the bicycle
and only stopped after his father rode all the way back home to give him that candy. He
was only three at that time and he was that stubbom." She continues, "Zheng does not get
along with his father too well. At least he will listen to me. He is closer to me, but I am
afraid that he will tum out bad and I will lose him. Xing doesn't realize that Zheng is just
like him and they are both stubbom to the core. Neither of them will give in so I have to
tell Zheng that he needs to respect his father. Zheng needs to understand that the reason
we push him hard is because we want him to have a better future."
"But don't you think he should have fiiends his own age to play with?" I ask.
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"Why does he need friends?" Wen replies. "He has his family."
Later that day, before school is out, everyone congregates in Mr. Ting's living
room. Mr. Ting, disgusted by his son-in-law's behavior, leaves to go play ma-jong with
his friends. Xing sits defiantly quiet in a chair, while Ping, Hui, Yan, and Wen all take
tums pointing their fingers at him and criticizing his actions from the night before. They
also give him instmctions on how to raise his son. The family's action reminds me of the
criticism circles of the Cultural Revolution that I have read about. In old communist
China, when someone did something wrong and refused to mend his ways, the party
members would seat the offender in the middle of his peers while they criticized his
actions. The accused would listen quietiy and then confess to his wrong doings and
convince the members that he realized his error and would reform. In this case, however,
Xing did not confess, nor did he reform. Three weeks later there was another row
between father and son (Shanghai City, September 17 & 18, 2001).
Pressures
Being an only child has its advantages and disadvantages. On the one hand, the
indulgence and attention that was spread out among the other children is now centered on
one child. On the other, all tills attention forces the only child to become the perfect child,
as in the case of Zheng, who is denied the fiiendship of his peers unless he performs
better in school. But at the same time, Zheng is spoiled by his family. His father, Xing,
pays up to half of his monthly income to buy Zheng an Adidas brand backpack. I have
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also witnessed, on occasion, Ming, Zheng's uncle, sitting down and doing Zheng's
mathematics homework for him!
Family doting on a child is a familiar sight in China. Wang, a seasoned joumalist
and author of Red China Blues, tells the tale of a tantmm by a three-year old that her
sister witnessed in a shopping mall. "The parents and the grandparents were all crowding
around, trying to get him to stop crying. They kept offering him toys, and he kept
screaming louder. Finally, the father pulled out a pack of cigarettes and gave him one"
(Wang 1996:383). Parents are mled by the children of this generation. China is a place
where parents are willing to spent 50 yuan (US $6) for a brand name shirt (Wang
1996:383) when the average monthly salary is 800 yuan (US $100). One man
complained, "When they go out, they always go to Kentucky Fried Chicken. Then they're
so tired they take a taxi home!" (Wang 1996:383). The Chinese children's market has
become a bonanza for foreign stores such as Pizza Hut and McDonald's (Watson
1997:4). Parents, in trying to secure their children's affection, bribe them with every
luxury and toy imaginable. These luxuries also represent elevated prestige and status
(Watson 1997:9).
Yet, even with all the indulgence, there is more pressure on the child to succeed.
No expense is spared in bettering the child. Parents vie for a spot in the best nursery
schools in order to provide a superior environment; they feel the earlier the child is
enrolled, the more he or she will leam (Wolf 1985:118). "Urbanites, even after all the
anti-intellectual campaigns they have witnessed and/or endured in the last three decades,
still see education as the path to a brighter personal future" (Wolf 1985:133). Parents
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accept primary school as a necessity for their children to survive in the modem world and
middle school as a basic financial investment (Wolf 1985:127). But just as in the case of
housing, there are not enough nursery schools in China to accommodate all the children.
Most parents are forced to leave their only child to the care of relatives; they then make
efforts to compensate for this handicap (Wolf 1985:118). Littie emperors and empresses
are signed-up for extracurricular classes in English, computer studies, and performing
arts (Reese 1999). In a way, parents are living their lives vicariously through their
children. Having been denied the opportunity for an education and material goods, as the
children of the Cultural Revolution, many adults are having a difficult time saying "no"
to their precious only child.
Parents give their singletons all that they want and desire and, in retum, they
expect their child to bring them honor and glory through academic excellence. They push
their child mercilessly and, not unlike the parents of America, assume that the schools
will solve behavioral problems. As one dance instmctor found, "they're impossible to
discipline.. .their mothers and fathers don't care" (Reese 1999). Yet, at home, parents
have no reservations about physical punishment. Wolf (1985:205) notes that, "Mothers
were considered by children to be the protector from the implacable punishment of the
father, but grandmothers were superprotectors from both mother and father." I also
noticed this trend during my stay in Shanghai.
Parents will defend their child ferociously if anyone dares to lay a finger on him.
But teachers in China are being sent mixed messages. Parents disapprove of "feudal
teaching methods" of physical punishment by the schools, but, at the same time, they
85
instmct teachers to beat the child as often as necessary "to produce a good scholar" (Wolf
1985:116). Wen proudly tells me, "In China, teachers are not even allowed to send the
kids out of the classroom for misbehavior because it interferes with their right for an
education;" her husband complains, "How can these little bastards ever behave if they
don't leam to fear their teachers?" When 1 told him the standard teaching supplies issued
to the teachers (ten years ago in Taiwan) included a switch of bamboo to punish the
students who misbehaved or performed poorly on exams, he wholeheartedly agreed with
the idea.
A New Paradigm
The nature of childhood is changing in China. As noted by Huang (1982),
children are becoming self-indulgent and demanding more, emotionally and financially.
A process of resource transfer has emerged from parents to children. This indicates a
reversal of the Chinese family tradition. Before, in the extended family, wealth flowed
from the middle generation, through labor, into the hands of the older generation, who
then divided the income among the dependents on a need basis. Now, the flow of wealth
has changed directions and money eamed by the middle generation goes into purchasing
goods and services for the younger generation, while leaving the older generation
dependent (Chen 1985:198; Zhao 1994:121). This tendency for the middle generation to
distance themselves from their parents has caused the govemment to respond by
amending the original Marriage Law of 1950 (see Appendix C), to include the obligations
of children to their parents (Chen 1985:198). However, Zhao (1994:159) theorizes that
86
the excessive love and care these only-children of the current generation are receiving
will only cause intergenerational relations to become stronger. Thus, as the middle
generation ages, they should not fear abandonment. Zhao (1994:159) believes that these
only-children are links between parents and grandparents because the affection the first
and second generations have for the third is common ground. This love for the grandchild
brings parents and grandparents closer together.
Growing individualistic attitudes towards life are a product of economic progress
in China, and of the government's efforts to raise the standard of hving by promoting
mass consumption. Parents are realizing that their only child should have a large part of
what they have and have begun to double or triple the amount of resources (time and
money) spent on their child compared to the previous generations, who had to divide the
resource among more than one child (Chen 1985:197). Children are shifting their focus of
interest to the betterment of themselves rather than the family. This is a problem since a
self-centered generation could undermine the socially-valued collectivism, discipline, and
moral ethics of the traditional Chinese society (Zhao 1994:27). However, other studies it
shows that the One-Child Policy is producing positive effects on these only-children.
These include the ability to think independently, to have more emotional balance, and to
be healthier (Zhao 1994:27). Additional studies (using American children) have also
shown that children who belong to smaller families achieve higher test scores in school
(Blake 1989:32). Some believe the important question is how society and famihes will
adapt to the single-child family environment, rather than how a new generation should
assimilate into the traditional one (Zhao 1994:28). This newfound independence of the
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youth could push the older generation into becoming more independent as well, and less
dependent on their children as old-age security providers (Zhao 1994:213).
Concems for a spoiled generation under the One-Child Policy are legitimate. The
over indulgence of these only-children, spurred on by their parents, could be detrimental
to both the children's behavioral development and to Chinese society. The drawback of
having a generation of spoiled "me firsts" is the delay of physical independence from
parents. Parents in China can be seen performing basic tasks as tying shoes and wiping
bottoms of children as old as ten (Reese 1999). Children cannot dress themselves and at
age six are still spoon-fed (Wang 1996:383). Despite the fact that they do have
independence in thought and in expressing what they want or don't want, their physical
actions are often restricted by their parents. I witnessed this with the Ting family, in
which Zheng, a grown fifteen year-old boy, had to be escorted by his mother across the
sfreet on his way to school every moming. Not only are parents over indulging their
child, but they are also unnecessarily protective of their only child against unseen
dangers. As a result of the One-Child Policy, parents are babying their only child for fear
that the child cannot be replaced by the birth of a second or third. Children of this
younger generation have been told that they are precious. They are treated as if they are
gold, and they are coming to believe it themselves.
Many people believe that the One-Child Policy will populate China with an entire
generation of spoiled 'little emperors," but as one joumalist puts it:
Granted, it might be unpleasant to live in a nation of me-first onlies, yet
I saw a social revolution in the making. For generations, Chinese society
had emphasized the family, the clan, the collective over the individual.
Now, for the first time in four thousand years of history, the relationship
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was reversed. Pampered onlies were growing up to be self-centered,
strong-willed, knife-wielding individuals like, well, Americans. Where
the Mao generation failed, the Me generation just might succeed. 'It's
China's salvation,' said Michael Crook, a British fiiend who was bom
and raised in Beijing. 'If you have a population of Littie Emperors, you
can't have little slaves. Everyone will want to tell everyone else what to
do. You'll have democracy.'' (Wang 1996:384)
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CHAPTER Vlll
CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION
The One-Child Policy is controversial for many different reasons. For the people
of China, whose way of life for two thousand years has been based on filial piety, it is
difficult to imagine a different way of life. Yet, the dynamics of the family in China are
changing. The fact that fewer children are being bom to families has caused the families
to adapt and look for support outside their own family. These new avenues of support
seem to be different for each generation. Along with social support, each generation has
also found different ways to cope with financial support.
First Generation: Mr. Ting
Older people make new bonds with other older people as a form of social support.
As a fact of life, aging persons find themselves progressively losing relationships,
whether through the death of a spouse or the retirement of a fiiend or colleague. As
relationships end, the elderly find themselves in need of companionship from people of
similar age, interests, values, and experiences (Wood & Robertson 1978:372). This
implies that continued relationships with fiiends and siblings are more important than
those with children or grandchildren. The reason for this may be that kinship relations are
ascribed while fiiendship relations are achieved (Wood & Robertson 1978:371). While
the older generation is reminiscing, the younger generation is just beginning to make
significant memories of their own. And while the younger generation find themselves
90
trapped in the achievement rat race, the older generation is making new friends while
achieving status outside the home by participating in neighborhood committees (Hayward
& Wang 1993:28). "Thus many elderly are directly involved in the administration of the
daily activities of the neighborhood" (Hayward & Wang 1993:28). For the elderly,
children and grandchildren bring joy and happiness in a sort of ritualistic, obligatory way.
Interaction between the elderly and their adult children is more symbolic (Rosow
1965:375); "ritualistic visits and ceremonial observances could be seen as ways of
meeting obligations and maintaining appearances without close emotional ties necessarily
being present" (Wood & Robertson 1978:371). Thus is the generational gap between the
old and the young expressed.
Mr. Ting often finds refuge with his friends. His almost daily trips to play ma
jong in the next building with three other elderly people are his way to stay socially
active. One day, I ask him why he enjoys gambling so often, knowing that he is going to
lose every time he plays ma jong. He says that the point is not the money, but rather
getting out of the house. He feels that his children are boring and they often patronize
him by telling him what to do. He understands that his children have good intentions, but
my observations tells me that his pride prevents him from accepting any dictums from his
children even if it is for his own good. Based on my observations, Mr. Ting spends little
to no time with his grandchildren. Given his situation, I'm not entirely sure that the OneChild Policy has affected his generation, in terms of social kinship replacement. He still
has four children who visit him daily, although he ignores them, and his interaction with
his fiiends keep him active enough to avoid his children.
91
Although filial piety is still a much-rooted belief, in which the son takes care of
the parent(s), the elderly often find themselves financially secure, perhaps more so than
their children. China's generous pension system for the older generation (those bom
before the communist take over in 1949) has allowed them to become financially
independent from their children. Mr. Ting's monthly pension is 200 yuan more than his
youngest son's wages. With this new financial independence, attitudes and traditional
beliefs are also changing.
After a generation of successful propaganda and campaigns, most urban Chinese
feel that daughters are just as valuable sons. The old saying and belief of "z/!o«g nan qing
nU," or "males are more important than females," is dying out. Females are no longer
considered useless and they can cam money outside of the home to support themselves
and their families. This is partly due to the desegregation of males and females in the
social setting and partly due to economic growth and the acceptance of females as
breadwinners. In fact, since families are only allowed one child, most mothers today
prefer daughters because they feel that daughters are more compassionate and contribute
more to the family (Wolf 1985:238). As in the past, daughters are still considered to be
more xi xin or more companionate. There is no longer a fear of abandonment if one does
not have sons, because daughters are equally dependable for old age comfort (Wolf
1985:238), if one cannot provide for oneself
The government is a reliable source for the old age comfort of the elderly. The
need for children and grandchildren has become more for emotional comfort than
financial necessity. Rather than parents relying on children for their financial needs, I
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often observed situations where it was the other way around. On one occasion, Yun Ting
decided to purchase the one-room apartment (or an efficiency apartment) next to Mr.
Ting's apartinent for Hang. Yun had to borrow money from Mr. Ting to complete the
purchase. It would seem that in the Ting family, the first generation has more disposable
income than the second generation. 1 believe this is partially due to the money spent by
the second generation on the third generation (grandchildren). Harrell (2001:149) notes
that, "China has moved from a society in which children are filial to their parents to one
in which parents serve their children."
Second Generation: Mr. Ting's Children
Friendship is not particularly important in the life of a middle-aged person (Wood
& Robertson 1978:372). At this point in their lives, fiiendship is a means to get ahead
rather than companionship for its own sake. A resourceful person has many people from
different backgrounds in his/her social network. By collecting this social capital, it has
the potential to be used for collective advancement of family. For instance, kinship ties
might secure an employment position, but it is the other social networking ties that help
in the vertical movement within the position (Hamilton 1996:19). Advancement can
mean the difference between more or less money for the family. If Hang Ting is accepted
into the military, it is because of his family's ability to network; however, if he wishes to
move up the ranks, then he will have to depend on his own social skills and merit.
The ability to use both kinship and friendship for social support is important in
gaining additional resources. By using collective resources, the entire Ting family
93
benefits. The occasional use of Mr. Ting's medical insurance card saves the family
money. The friend who lives across town allows Zheng Ting to register there and attend a
better school in the district. Family, fiiends, and co-workers allow Yun to seek a better
future for his son. The neighbor next door (a policeman) offers protection and legal
advice. And the nephew who works for a computer company gets a seat at the dinner
table for taking the time to fix everyone's computer, including mine.
As the middle-aged are getting older, they find themselves more financially
dependent on extemal resources such as banks for loans, or minor investments in stocks
or bonds for additional liquid income. For this middle generation, "money is being used
as a medium of emotional expression as well as a medium of economic exchange..."
(Hamilton 1996:20). The ability to provide for their parents to show fihal piety, and the
ability to give to their children as a show of affection, makes the second generation look
outside the family for monetary resources. Now that the pool of money has become
smaller as families become smaller, their only other choice is in the market economy.
When Yun Ting purchased the efficiency apartment for his son, he went to Mr. Ting first.
After borrowing money from his father, Yun borrowed additional money from his
father's close fiiends. Had his father's friends refused him, then he would have been
forced to liquidate his stock holdings, which, at the time, were worth close to nothing due
to the continued decline in the market.
Injmy observations, I often found that in cases where money was involved, the
procedure was always to ask family first, before seeking outside help. One curious
observation I made about the Ting family was the close dependence between parent and
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child for all three generations. However, there was little dependence among the siblings
or cousins (in the case of grandchildren). Instead of seeking help from his brothers or
sister, Yun sought help from his father's friends. In fact, although the siblings saw each
other daily, there was little to no contact in terms of conversation. I am not sure why this
is the case, but I can guess that the formation of nuclear families by each sibling have
made the Ting family more decentralized. Perhaps this is the cause of the rift. Of course,
there may have been other family troubles that 1 was not aware, which caused the
distance between these siblings and their families.
Third Generation: Mr. Ting's Grandchildren
The Chinese teenager is as much of an enigma as any other teenager. This
younger generation shows quite a few independent attributes in wanting to break away
from their families and wanting to establish their own social networks, yet at the same
time, they are still dependent on their family members for social interaction, especially if
they live a sheltered life. In the Ting family, all three grandchildren depend on their
parents for physical help such as in cooking, cleaning, and networking for employment.
For emotional support, they seek outside help from classmates or friends. For Zheng, the
over protectiveness of his parents seem to limit his access to such fiiends, whereas the
lack of employment limit Hang and Yan's access to both current and new friends. Their
coping mechanisms for this lack of peer socialization are different. The youngest of
grandchildren, Zheng, rebels and defies his parents and risks punishment to be with his
peer group. Yan, the only female grandchild, foregoes fiiendship for the companionship
95
of her parents. In her case, this might be an anomaly in her age group. She might have
decided to spend more time with her family because of her mother's illness. Hang, on the
other hand, seems to be well-rounded in his ways of finding emotional support. I often
witnessed him playing basketball with young men his own age. He goes out with his
friends occasionally when he has the money to spare.
I also noticed distance in the ways the cousins interacted with each other. All
three grandchildren seldom spent time together unless their parents were present.
Although 1 saw no dislikes among the cousins, there was certainly a reserve. Even with
this reserve, the cousins referred to each other as sister or brother (see Appendix A),
instead of the customary title of cousin. This is prevalent throughout China, since
everyone understands that children of this generation do not have sisters and brothers,
only cousins. There was the occasional romping around, but for the most part, each
grandchild stayed in his or her own home. In a private conversation with Ping, I asked
why she did not ask her son Hang to spend more time with Zheng so that he could help
Zheng stay out of trouble. Ping told me she thought that Zheng was still at an age where
he was impressionable. Hang's personality and habits on the other hand, are set. She
worried that her sister-in-law. Wen, would blame her for Zheng's transgressions if Hang
spent too much time with Zheng. Ping knew that her son enjoyed going out but that Wen
and her husband restricted Zheng's movements. Her main fear was that her sister and
brother-in-law would blame Hang for leading Zheng into frouble and not studying, since
her own son did not do well in school. Therefore, she specifically instmcted Hang to stay
away from Zheng, lest he be blamed for Zheng's disinterest in schoolwork. This leads me
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to believe that the children are emulating the adults by staying close to their parents, but
being distant with their "siblings."
In terms of financial support, the grandchildren of the Ting family still depend on
their parents. Each child will continue to live with his or her parents until the day he or
she marries. If he or she is employed, any salary or wages will be handed over to the
parents as his or her contribution to the family. The parents in tum will give the child a
monthly allowance. This is still done by Mr. Ting and his youngest, unmarried son
Ming. Ming, who is 47 years old, asks for and receives money from Mr. Ting whenever
he needs to make a major purchase. Once a child marries, he or she may or may not move
out of the parents' house to establish a separate residence. In Hang's case, his parents
have already provided him with housing in the event he marries. His parents solved the
problem of having new and less desirable neighbors next door to Mr. Ting, by purchasing
the neighboring apartment from the neighbor who is a policemgrn.
The traditional kinship network has thinned out, with ties beginning to spread in
other directions, towards fiiends, neighbors, govemment, and non-government entities. In
a way, this makes the day-to-day interactions of Chinese people seem more impersonal.
This, of course, is also related to the growing market economy. One day, back in the
U.S., my father's friend and I were discussing the topic of my thesis and he described the
youth of today's China as, "xidng qidn zou" or moving forward (towards the future). This
is a play-on-words of the word qidn, which phonetically can mean either forward or
money. It is ironic yet somewhat sad, to believe that an entire generation can only be
motivated to move forward by following money.
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CHAPTER IX
AFTERWORD
Many people 1 interviewed in China believe that one child per couple is not
enough. They remain optimistic that someday China will allow them to have more. When
asked what the ideal number of children would be, most answered three, two boys and
one giri. However, they also conceded that they would prefer two rather than only one.
When I asked them why they thought that they should have at least two children per
couple, their reply was, "so that their only child would not be so lonely or become too
selfish." This may be a universal feeling that American parents also have toward only
children: that they are somehow at a disadvantage (Falbo 1982:212).
Now that the people of China have become used to the luxuries a market economy
brings, it is hard to go back. The more possessions one has, the better. And, since the
average person cannot afford expensive things on an average income, it would seem more
economical to combine the incomes of several family members. Tangible items such as
video games, pirated DVDs, and cellular phones are the current fashions, and double
income families with no children are on the rise. As population growth slows to a stable
level, adjustments have to be made to take care the elderly. The Chinese govemment
realizes that the One-Child Policy cannot continue for another generation. They have
begun to phase it out by allowing the birth of two children if both parents are onlychildren.
The mathematical implication of the exemption is that the one-child
regulation effectively will be lifted after the first generation, because
98
almost everyone growing up in China's cities today is an only-child, likely
to marry another only-child. (Lev 2000; 1)
Now the govemment claims that the One-Child Policy was designed to only influence
one generation and that if the policy were to continue, it would "make for a bad family
stmcture" (Lev 2000). Even so, the One-Child Policy has been a factor in slowing world
population growth from reaching the six billion mark by four years (Lev 2000). The OneChild Policy accomplished many of the goals the Chinese government has set for it.
However, with the constant changes in laws and regulations, it is difficult to say if there
will be any significant changes in kinship replacement in China as only-child parents are
allowed to have more children.
99
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106
APPENDIX A
FAMILY TERMS DICTIONARY
107
These terms are used in Shanghai but are not exclusive to Shanghai. Different regions
might use different terms. (*) Represents the additional titie of elder or younger. The title
da or zluwg is reserved for the eldest while xiao is used for the youngest and everything
in between is given a numbered title starting with two up until the next to the last, with
the last being xiao.
Nuclear
ma ma
ba ba
^ nu er
Mother
Father
Son
Daughter
*gege
*di di
*Jiejie
*mei mei
Elder brother
Younger brother
Elder sister
Younger sister
Patemal grandfather
Patemal grandmother
Husband's father
Husband's mother
Son's wife
Son's son/daughter
wdigong
Matemal grandfather
wai p6
Matemal grandmother
zhang ren
Wife's father
zhdng mu niang Wife's mother
nHxii
Daughter's husband
*wdi sun (zr)/(«ii)Daughter's son/daughter
Extended
ye ye
nai nai
gong gong
popo
*xiju
*sun (:T) {nu)
Stem (terms will become obsolete under the One-Child Policy)
*sao :i
Elder brother's wife
jisfii
Elder sister's husband
*di xijii
Younger brother's wife
mei
fii
Younger sister's husband
*zhi {zi)l{nti)
Brother's son/daughter
Sister's son/daughter
wai {sheng)l{sheng nu)
Paternal Side
Maternal Side
*bai bai
V'ujiu
*jiit ma
Father's elder brother
Father's elder brother's wife
*shu shu
Father's younger brother
*shenshen
Father's younger brother's wife
Father's brother's son/daughter
*tang {xiong or di)l{jie or met)
*gugu
Father's sister
*gufii
Father's sister's husband
Father's sister's son/daughter
*(gu) biao {xiong or di)l{jie or mei)
Mother's brother
Mother's brother's wife
Mother's brother's son/daughter
*biao {xiong or di)l{jie or mei)
Mother's sister
^ayi
Mother's sister's husband
*yifii
Mother's sister's son/daughter
*{yi) biao {xiong or di)l{jie or mei)
Other
This list is far from inclusive of all the kinship terms Chinese people use. Terms used can
extend up for four generations and down four generations and may also include lateral
associations.
Familial terms are also applied to non-relatives as a form of respect. Anyone
(male/female respectively) who belongs in the category of your peers is called {ge ge or
di di)l{jiejie or mei mei) depending on whether they are older or younger than you. Those
who are your parents' peers are called {shu shu)l{dyi); and those who are your
grandparents' peers are called {bai bdi)/{p6p6 or ma ma).
108
APPENDIX B
SHANGHAI FAMILY PLANNING POLICY
109
Shanghai Municipal Family Planning Regulation'
August 1, 1990 An Announcement Issued by the Standing Committee of Shanghai
Municipal People's Congress No, 16
(reproduced as is)
'v Shanghai municipal family plarming regulation
passed at the 16"' session of the standing
committee of the 9* Shanghai municipal
people's congress on March 14, 1990 and it shall
come into force on August 1, 1990. >
Article 6. Main duties of the municipal
family planning commission are as follows:
1. Implementation of family plarming
laws, regulations and policies issued by
the state and our municipality, and
drawing up corresponding measures
for implementation
2. Responsibility of compiling population
prospects and population statistics of
preparing long term population
development program and armual plan
for
family
plarming
and
its
implementation strategy for the city;
3. Organizing and developing the publicity
and education campaign for family
plarming;
4. Organizing a system of training for
family plarming cadres;
5. Organizing and managing scientific and
technological research work for family
plarming and carrying out the work;
6. Supervision of expenditures on family
plarming and the management of
contraceptives; [sic\
Article 7. Main duties of the family
planning commissions of districts and counties
are as follows:
1. Implementation of family planning
laws, regulations, and policies issued
by the state and the municipality;
2, Drawing up a population development
program and an annual plan for family
plarming in its jurisdiction on the basis
of
the
municipal
population
development program and the armual
plan for family plarming and setting up
and conducting the program;
3. Conducting publicity and education
campaign for family plarming and
taking charge of training family
plarming workers at the grass-roots
level within its jurisdiction;
4, Taking charge of statistics on family
plarming, expenditures on family
planning and the management of
contraceptives.
Chapter 1. General provisions
.Article 1. In order to carry out family
plarming, to limit the population size, to improve
people's quality of life, to control fertility and to
bring population growth into harmony with
socio-economic development plarming, this
statue is enacted on the basis of the Constitution
of the People's Republic of China (PRC), the
Marriage Law of the PRC, and relevant state
regulations in combination with practical
conditions or our city.
Article 2. Citizens must practice and
encourage late marriage, late childbearing and
fewer and healthy births.
Both husband and wife shall have rights
and obligations to practice family plarming.
Legal rights and interests of citizens
practicing family planning are under the
protection of the law.
Article 3. The priority in conducting family
plarming shall be given to the publicity and
education and economic and administrative
measures shall be taken supplementally.
Article 4. The family plarming work led by
the people's govenmients at all levels in our
jurisdiction are [sic] required to put the target
responsibility system of family plarming into
practice.
Chapter 2. Organizations and duties
Article 5. All family plarming commissions
in the municipality, districts and counties are
responsible for family plarming work in each
jurisdiction. All administrative departments such
as the public health, civil administration, public
security, industry and commerce should deal
with the family planning management to
cooperation
with
the
family
plarming
corrmiission.
110
Article 8. The people's govenmients of
villages (towns) shall employ assistants for
family plarming; a sub-district office shall
maintain fijll-time cadres for family planning.
The committees of residents and villagers
are responsible for supervision over family
planning workers.
State organs [.ilc] enterprises and
undertaking units shall set up organizations for
the family plarming program or maintain fulltime (part-time) family plarming workers on the
basis of needs.
All state organs, organizations, and
enterprises and undertaking units shall have
responsibility to properly conduct the family
plarming work in each section and unit.
5. A remarried couple having only one
child
altogether
before
their
remarriage.
Article 13. Couples of the agricultural
population falling under any of the following
categories except the provision of Article 18 in
this stature may have the second child in
accordance with family plarming:
1. One party of a couple has a deformity,
so that has [sic] difficulty with physical
labor, and carmot live by his or her
own [sic] or is a disabled armyman
[sic] at B-rate of the second grade or
more;
2. One party of a couple is only one child
[sic]; [implying one member of the
couple is an only child]
3. One party of a couple is a fisherman
continuously engaging oneself in
fishing on the sea for more than 5 years
and even now on the sea [sic];
[implying one member of the couple is
constantly traveling or unavailable]
4. A couple, the husband became a
member of the wife's family that has
no support for the elderly and the
wife's sisters have only one child each.
Article 14. Couples under special
circumstances except the provisions of Article
11,12 and 13 in this statue must obtain approval
for the second birth from the municipal family
plarming commission.
Article 15. Couples in accordance with the
provisions of Articles 11, 12, 13 and 14, if the
permanent residence of the husband and the wife
vary then the wife's residence is taken as the
official permanent residence.
A couple failing under any of the
provisions of Article 11, 12, 13 and 14 both must
submit an application to the family plarming
commission in a district or country and obtain
approval when they want to give birth to a child.
A couple having objections may make an appeal
to the municipal family plarming commission for
reconsideration.
Article 16. Couples obtaining permission to
give birth to the second child except in the
provision of clause (1) and (4) of Article 12 in
this statute [sic] must space longer than a four
year interval between births, otherwise it shall be
handled as the case of neglecting family
planning.
Chapter 3. Fertility control
.Article 9. The first marriageable age for
men and women shall be after completion of 25
years and 23 years respectively which shall be
regarded as late marriage; the first child birth for
women at the age of 24 completed years shall be
regarded as late childbearing.
Article 10. One child per couple shall be
practiced and be encouraged. Child-bearing
neglecting family plarming is prohibited.
Article 11. A couple who [sic] adopted a
child in accordance with regulations because of
sterility may give birth to a child if conception
comes later.
Article 12. Couples falling under any of the
following categories may give birth to the
second child in accordance with the regulations
of family plarming:
1. The first child has a non-hereditary
deformity and carmot join the normal
labor force;
2. Both husband and wife are only
children;
3. Both husband and wife are ex-overseas
Chinese and have settled for less than
six years since their retum from
abroad;
4. National minority citizens in the city
from other places in possession of the
certificate of permission to have the
second child given by the local family
plarming department at a county or
higher level and have akeady been
pregnant before their arrival;
Ill
Article 23. A couple who do not give birth
to a second child after having the first one, may
apply for and receive the one-child certificate, by
which they shall enjoy following privileges
while the child is under 16 years of age:
1. Monthly subsidies shall be given to the
parents of one child according to the
provision of the municipal people's
goverrmient until their only children
reach 16 years of age;
2. Fees for daycare and management
expenses on their children to attend
nurseries or kindergartens shall partly
be reimbursed in accordance with the
regulations;
3. Relevant units may count only one child
as two children when they allot
housing (including settlement of
removed households) in urban areas,
regulate a family ploy and arrange a
building plot in rural villages.
Article 24. Subsidies and partly reimbursed
fees for daycare and management expenses shall
generally be shouldered by both parents' units
(or by relevant villages) 50 percent each.
The expenses mentioned in the preceding
clause shall be fmanced with the welfare funds
of organs, organizations and enterprise and
undertaking units; raral villages shall cover them
under the item of public expenses.
Subsidies for the parents of only child
engaging in town and township enterprises shall
be financed with the management expenses of
the self-employed labor association appropriated
by the administrative department of industry and
commerce.
Procedures to finance subsidies for the
parents of only child engaging in village private
industry and conmierce and others shall be
formulated separately by the municipal people's
govenmient.
Article 25. When village enterprises recruit
workers, one-child families should be given
priority; one-child families of full-time farmers
should be given priority among them.
Article 26. Couples in receipt of the onechild certificate belonging to staff and workers
shall be paid additional subsidies amounting to 5
percent of their prior wages on their old age
retirement, but the total of their subsidies and
pensions must not exceed the sum of their prior
wages; those belonging to farmers shall be
looked after financially and daily life as well by
Chapter 4. Healthy births and birth control
Article 17. Healthier births and better
upbringing of children should be achieved. In
developing consultation for heredity, the system
of premarital physical check-ups must be carried
out.
Both or one party of a couple suffering
from a hereditary disease or others which are
regarded as improper to give birth to a child
should end the conception or undergo a
sterilization.
Article 18. Fertile couples should adopt
contraceptives and birth control measures
according to the provisions of this statute,
.Article 19. The units conducting birth
control operation must obtain authorization from
the public health administrative department at a
district, coimty or higher level; medical
persoimel performing birth control operation
must pass through the special training and obtain
approval from the public health administrative
department at a district, county or higher level.
Medical persormel of private business must
not perform birth control operation.
Article 20. Complications as the result of
sterilization appraised and confirmed by the
organization of the public health administrative
department at a district, county or higher level
should be treated free of charge; those unable to
engage in normal physical labor despite retreatment should be looked after in working and
living by the relevant imits; those having
difficulty in living should be taken into
consideration and be given financial aids by the
relevant units or local people's govermnents.
Article 21. The scientific research
department for family plarming and relevant
units bearing scientific research work for family
plarming should strengthen scientific studies of
birth control and healthy birth, and provide and
popularize safe, effective, handy and low-priced
contraceptives and effective methods for
healthier births.
Chapter 5. Rewards
Articles 22. A couple conformable to age
for late marriage shall be given an additional
week to [sic] marriage leave; a couple
conformable to age for late childbearing shall be
given 15 days more to maternity leave to the
wife and 3 days leave to the husband. Wages and
awards during the above mentioned leave period
shall be paid in full.
112
times both of their average yearly
income in two years previous to
childbirth. Couples having the third or
more births without prior approval
shall be imposed penalty amounting to
four to six times both of their average
yearly income in two years previous to
childbirth. Those monetary penalties
must be paid off within 6 years and the
amount of the first year payment must
not be less than 25 percent of the total
penalty. The penalty shall be imposed
from the month of pregnancy. Couples
who ended pregnancies through
education shall fiilly be paid back the
penalties already paid;
the relevant village (town) people's govenmient
when they lost their ability to work because of
age.
.Article 27. After marriage couples having
no children or couples whose children died and
neither had another child after receiving the onechild certificate nor adopted any children
belonging to staff and workers shall be paid
additional subsidies amounting to 10 percent of
their prior wages on their old age retirement, the
total of those subsidies and pensions must not
exceed the sum of their prior wages; those
belonging to farmers shall be paid monthly fixed
subsidies by the village people's govenmient or
the \illagers' committee in addition to enjoying
treatments according to the local provisions.
.Article 28. Married couples who adopted
sterilization certified by the hospital are entitled
to enjoy their leave with ftiU pay in accordance
with the law,
.Article 29. The people's governments at all
levels or relevant units should praise and award
imits cuid individuals that have made remarkable
achievements in the family plarming work.
6. Couples belonging to staff and workers
shall be taken disciplinary action [sic]
by their units in addition to the
monetary penalties, [implying those
working directly for the govemment
sector will be disciplined and penalized
by their work unit] Couples belonging
to the private industry and commerce
[sectors]
shall
be
imposed
administrative punishments by the
administrative department of industry
and commerce in addition to the
monetary penalties.
7. Children out of family plarming
belonging to staff and workers are
excluded from the number of a family
in allocating housing (including
settlement of removed households);
those belonging to farmers are not
entitled to any additional rationing to
their family plot and building land.
Article 31. No units bringing about
childbirth out of family plarming can be chosen
as an advanced (civilized) unit in that year and
besides, the monetary penalties shall be imposed.
Article 32. In case of violations of the
provision of Article 19 in this statute and
regulations conceming removing lUD, the units
or persons that performed operations shall be
confiscated their illegal eamings and be imposed
the monetary penalties. Those refusing to mend
their ways despite repeated admonition shall be
imposed heavier punishments; those constituting
a crime shall be a criminal act responsibility by
the judicial office according to the law.
Article 33. It is strictly forbidden for any
units or individuals to give medically
Chapter 6. Punishments
Article 30. Couples having the second or
more births without obtaining approval shall be
regarded as violation of family plarming law.
Couples neglecting family planning shall be
imposed the following punishments:
1. Hospital charges and medical expenses
for childbirth should be paid at their
own expenses and they are not entitled
to the treatment for maternity leave
with full pay;
2. All health fees of children out of family
plarming must be paid by their parents
at their own expenses until their
children join the work force;
3. All fees for day care and management
expenses of children out of family
plarming must be paid by their parents
at their own expenses;
4. Couples who have received the onechild certificate must retum it, by
which all treatments they have enjoyed
shall be stopped and subsidies for
parents of only child already paid must
be repaid;
5. Couples having the second births
without prior approval shall be
imposed penalties amounting to three
113
for reconsideration within 15 days from the
following day in receipt of the letter of decision.
Litigants refusing to accept the decision
from the state family plarming commission at a
higher level or the municipal family planning
commission may bring a suit to the local
people's court within 15 days from the following
day in receipt of the letter of reconsidered
decision or the letter of punishment decision.
Litigants failing to appeal reconsideration within
the specified period, failing to bring a suit or
failing to fulfill duties may be enforced by the
people's court through application from the
administrative department that made the
decision.
unnecessary appraisal for the sex of a fetus.
Violations of this Article shall impose monetary
penalties; those refusing to mend their ways
despite repeated admonition shall be imposed
heavier punishments.
•Article 34. Cadres and persormel engaging
in the family plarming work who practice graft
shall be taken disciplinary action by their units in
accordance with the seriousness of the case and
the monetary penalties may be imposed as well.
Article 35. Those insulting, intimidating or
beating family plarming workers or interfering
with their work in various ways shall be dealt
with by the public security organ in accordance
with the Maintenance of the Public Order Act of
the PRC; those committing a crime shall be
liable to criminal responsibility by the judicial
office.
Article 37. Punishments on personnel or
units \'iolating this stature shall be decided by the
village (town) govemment, sub-district office or
the family plarming commission in the
municipality or districts (coimties). Punishments
imposed on individuals and units should be
based on the Handbook for Decision Making.
The accused belonging to staff and workers shall
be implemented by help of relevant units; those
belonging to farmers shall be implemented
through the relevant villagers' committee; those
belonging to the private industry and commerce
household shall be implemented with the help of
the local administrative department of industry
and commerce.
Article 38. Litigants objecting to the
decision may appeal to the family planning
commission of the govemment at a higher level
Chapter 7. Supplementary provisions
Article 39. Those giving birth to a child
without registering a marriage shall be applied
the punishments on those neglecting family
plarming.
Article 40. The way to handle family
plarming for the floating population shall be
formulated separately by the municipal people's
govemment.
Article 41. The municipal family plarming
commission may enact enforcement detailed
rules on the basis of this statute, which shall be
reported to and authorized by the municipal
people's govemment before enforcement.
Article 42. This statue shall come into force
on August 1, 1990 and the relevant regulations
issued before inconsistent with this statute are no
longer in force.
' SOURCE: Institute of Developing Economies. Statistical Data Series No, 56. March 1991.
114
APPENDIX C
MARRIAGE LAW OF CHINA
115
People's Republic of China Marriage Law'
Approved September 10,1980 (amended since April 13,1950)
at the 3'^'' meeting of the S"" term of the National People's Congress
(reproduced as is)
Chapter 1. General rules
Article 1. The law is the basic principle
about marriage and family relationship.
Article 2. It is to bring about a free
marriage between one man and one woman
and an institution of marriage where men
and women are equal. The legitimate rights
and interests of women, children, and the
elderly are to be protected. It is to
implement a program of family plarming.
.Article 3. It is forbidden to arrange or
buy and sell marriages and to engage in any
other conduct which interferes with freedom
to marry. It is forbidden to use marriage as a
basis for extorting property. Bigamy is
forbidden.
It is forbidden for members of a family
to mistreat or abandon one another.
Chapter 2. Marriage
Article 4. Both parties to a marriage
must enter into it entirely of their own
accord, and it is not permitted that any of the
parties to a marriage, or that a third party,
exert wrongful pressure in regard to any
such union.
Article 5. Men are not permitted to
marry before they are twenty-two years of
age and women are not permitted to marry
before they are twenty years of age.
Education must encourage later marriages.
Article 6. Anyone to whom the
following conditions apply is forbidden to
marry:
1. Those who are collateral blood
relatives within three degrees,
2. Those who suffer
from
uncontrolled leprosy or any
other diseases because of
which medical opinion thinks
they ought not to marry
Article 7. Both parties seeking to marry
must attend in person at the marriage
registration office to register. When the
requirements of the law m regard to
registration have been met, a marriage certificate will
be issued.
The marriage relationship commences as soon
as the marriage certificate is received.
Article 8. After marriage registration, in keeping
with how each of the parties decides, the wife may
become a member of the husband's family and the
husband may become a member of the wife's family.
Chapter 3. Family relationships.
Article 9. Man and wife are on an equal footing
with respect to relations within the family.
Article 10. Husband and wife each has the right
to use his or her own name and sumame.
Article 11. Husband and wife each has the
freedom to participate in production, work, study and
the activities of society, and either party must not
restrict or interfere with the other in this respect.
Article 12. Husband and wife each has a duty to
engage in family planning.
Article 13. Except for that which both parties
agree belongs to one of them, property accumulated
during the marriage belongs to husband and wife in
common.
Husband and wife have equal rights of
management in respect of property they hold in
common.
Article 14. Husband and wife have a mutual
duty of support.
When one party fails to carry out his or her duty
of support and support is required by the other party,
the party in need has a right to claim the cost of
support from the party who failed to provide support.
Article 15. Parents have a duty to raise and
educate their children; children have a duty to
support and assist their parents. When parents fail in
this duty of support and children are not of age or are
incapacitated, the children have a right to claim the
cost of support from their parents.
When children in this duty of support and the
parents are not able to work or have fallen upon hard
times, the parents have a right to claim the cost of
support from their children.
The drowning of children or any such behavior
is forbidden.
116
Article 16. Children can take the
sumame of either the father or the mother.
Article 17. Parents have the right and
obligation to discipline and protect their
children who are not yet of age.
For losses caused by their under age
children, parents must provide compensation
to the nation, any collective or other people.
Article 18. Husband and wife have a
mutual right of inheritance.
Parents and children have a mutual
right of inheritance.
Article 19. Children bom out of
wedlock enjoy rights equal to those bora in
wedlock and no one is permitted to do harm
or discriminate against anyone on this basis.
The father of a child bom out of wedlock
must be responsible to pay the costs, either
in whole or in part, of providing the
necessities of life and an education to the
child, tmtil the child can provide for itself
Article 20. The state recognizes the
legitimacy of relationships created by
adoption. Rights and obligations of support
exist between adopting parents and adopted
children and the laws relating to parent and
child relationships are also applicable to
these relationships.
Article 21. Rights and obligations exist
between former parents and former children
to provide and receive care and the laws
relating to parent and child relationships are
also applicable to these relationships.
Article 22. Patemal and matemal
grandparents who are able to bear it, have a
duty to underage patemal and matemal
grandchildren whose parents are deceased.
Patemal and matemal grandchildren who are
able to bear it, have a duty to support
patemal and maternal grandparents whose
children are deceased.
Article 23. Brothers and sisters who are
able to bear it, have a duty to support
underage brothers and sisters whose parents
are deceased or unable to care for them.
Chapter 4. Divorce
Article 24. Both parties to a marriage
are free to have it dissolved by a grant of
divorce. Both parties must apply for a
divorce at the divorce registry office.
The divorce registry office investigates
the sincerity of both parties and when
appropriate arrangements have been made for
children and property, a divorce certificate must
immediately be issued.
Article 25. In the course of an action for
divorce, either party can begin mediation proceedings
in the department concemed with such matters or he
or she can commence the action for divorce in the
People's Court.
The People's Court, when trying a divorce case,
must initiate mediation; but if emotional bonds
between the parties have definitely been severed and
mediation would be of no effect, a divorce must be
granted.
Article 26. A person on active military service
must give permission before his or her spouse can
commence divorce proceedings.
Article 27. A husband is not permitted to
commence divorce proceedings while his wife is
pregnant or within one year of his wife's having
given birth. There is no such restriction on a wife
commencing divorce proceedings. Even a husband
can seek a divorce under these circumstances when
the People's Court deems it really necessary to
proceed with the case.
Article 28. After divorce, if both parties wish to
resume their relationship as husband and wife, they
must go to the marriage registry office to register
their remarriage. The marriage registry office must
permit them to register.
Article 29. The relationship between parents and
children is not severed as a result of divorce. After
divorce, regardless of whether the father or the
mother is raising a child, the child remains the child
of both parents.
After divorce, parents still have the right and
obligation to raise and educate their children.
After divorce, in principle, a nursing child will
stay with a nursing mother. After the period of
nursing, if both parties carmot agree on the matter of
custody, the People's Court will decide the issue on
the basis of what is in the best interests of the child
and taking into consideration the particular
circumstances of the parties.
Article 30. After divorce, when one party is
raising a child, the other party must bear either in
whole or in part, the costs of the necessities of life
and education, and the parties may agree on the size
and duration of these payments; if the parties carmot
agree, the People's Court will decide.
In respect of child support and education
payments agreed upon by the parties or decided upon
by the court, nothing prevents a child, when
necessary, from making a reasonable request of either
117
parent to have the amount in the original
agreement or decision increased.
Article 31. After divorce, husband and
wife may decide how to divide their
common property; when they cannot agree,
the People's Court shall decide in view of
the property and specific circumstances
involved and in keeping widi the principle
that the interests of the wife and children are
to be taken into consideration.
•Article 32. On divorce, debts incurred
by the couple for common living expenses
become a charge upon the property that was
used for the benefit for the couple. If this
property is not sufficient to cover the debts,
the parties may agree on how payment will
be made, and if they cannot agree, the
People's Court shall decide.
If there are debts owed by either party
on his or her own account, that party is
required to settle them.
Article 33. When divorced, if one party
falls upon difficult times, the other must
give appropriate financial aid. The parties
may agree in this regard and if they cannot,
the People's Court shall decide.
Chapter 5. Miscellaneous provisions
Article 34. Violations of this act, depending
upon the circumstances involved, shall be dealt with
in accordance with law by administrative disciplinary
measures or the full sanctions of the law.
Article 35. The People's Court shall, in
accordance with law, compel performance in respect
of a refusal to pay any kind of support payment,
divide up property or administer an estate in
compliance with a court decision or mling.
Article 36. The National Minority Area People's
Congress and its standing committees in accordance
with the principles of this statue, may deal with local
minority family marriages in light of special
circumstances by enacting some changes or
supplemental provisions. Autonomous regions and
autonomous counties must submit a draft of such
provisions to the Provincial Autonomous Area
People's Congress Standing Committee. Autonomous
area draft enactments must be reported for the record
to the National People's Congress Standing
Committee,
Article 37. This statute is in force on January 1,
198L This statute as proclaimed on May 1, 1950 is
from this date no longer in force.
' SOURCE: Institute of Developing Economies, Statistical Data Series No. 56, March 1991,
118
APPENDIX D
PARENTAL LOVE VERSUS FAMILY OBLIGATIONS
119
Letter to the editor of the Yang-Ch 'ng Evening News, April 6, 1965
Copied as is from the translation of Wai-Kin Che'
Comrade Editor:
1 am a young worker from a landlord family. Since leaving school not long ago, 1
have been at my present work post. Under party education, 1 have set my heart and mind
on doing a good job of my work so 1 can step up my thought reform and strive for
progress.
Recently, however, 1 received a number of letters from my parents, saying: "Now
that you are working, you can eam money. But don't forget to retum gratitude to your
parents. You should know we have fed you and brought you up!"
1 have wavered somewhat. 1 am their only son. In the past they always regarded
me as "the dariing of the family."
I think a person, after all, is brought up by parents. Parental love for their children
stems from "natural" feelings. So long as children draw a clear line of class distinction
with their parents politically, it is a customary human feeling for the former to maintain
feeling of kinship with the latter.
It is indeed obligatory for children to be grateful to their parents for their
upbringing. However, some comrades disapprove of my view. How should 1 view and
handle this kind of family feeling, comrade editor? 1 hope you will help me raise my level
of understanding.
(signed)
Shan Kuang
Editor's Reply:
Shan Kuang:
Comrade editor of Study and Life has passed your letter to me. After reading it, I
think the question you have brought up is essential one of whether or not we should use
the class viewpoint to look at the problem of "family feeling."
When young people from families of the exploiting classes think of ways of
drawing a clear line of class distinction with their families, they often will come upon the
problems of so-called "feelings of kinship" and "the need for retuming gratitude to one's
parents."
If we do not look at these problems from the class viewpoint, it will be impossible
to draw a clear distinction with families of the exploiting classes. Nor can we firmly
adhere to the proletarian stand.
You have said you [sic] parents have regarded you as the "darling of the family."
This is what you think is love, isn't it? As a matter of fact, in the world there is no such
thing as love for no reason at all.
In a class society, love always has class Character. Abstract love is nonexistent. In
saying that parents of the exploiting classes have love for their children, the motivation
for "love" in this class lies in the fact that they want to pin their hopes on their children
120
and posterity so that they will maintain and carry on the interests of the exploiting classes
and become their successors. Here, there is absolutely no supraclass, "natural" love to
speak of
In the past, your parents obtained by means of exploitation from working people
all the food they ate, clothes they wore, things they used, and the house they lived in.
After liberation, you were also indebted to the Party and working people for providing
you with the means whereby you were able to attend school.
Therefore, as far as those from families of the exploiting classes are concemed, it
is working people - and not your parents of the exploiting classes - who tmly have
brought you up.
If you want to be grateful for your upbringing, then you should retum gratitude to
the laboring people. Certainly you should not retum gratitude to your parents of the
exploiting classes....
' SOURCE: Unknown, Yang Ch'eng Wan Pao {Yang Ch 'eng Evening News), Canton, April 6, 1965;
reprint, (R&E Research Associates, Inc., Palo Alto: Wai-Kin Che translator, 1979, 62-63).
121
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