Prof Yunxiang Yan (UCLA) 'Intergenerational Relatedness and Neo-Familism in Contemporary China’.
Location: Screening Room, G.04, 50 George Square.
Abstract:
Based on evidence drawn from longitudinal fieldwork over three decades and secondary literature, the present study unpacks the complex connections among the new pattern of intergenerational relations, the redefinition of filial piety and the rise of neo-familism in contemporary Chinese society. Remarkable developments include the increasing importance of the parents-children axis in family relations, a surge of intergenerational intimacy, a renewed primacy of the family in public life, and a trend to ‘descending familism’ in which the focal point of resource allocation, emotional attachment, and life aspirations in the family has shifted from glorifying the ancestors to raising the perfect child. Consequently, the family as institution has been further privatized, the individual exercises more agency in the working of family relations, and yet the process of individualization has taken a collectivist twist.