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УДК 316.356+314.5.06
LIU WENRONG,
Associate research professor, Institute of Sociology, SASS
attitudinal changes and trends of marriage and family
IN TODAY'S CHINA1
With the data collected in 2008 of the Survey on Family Value Changes (SFVC), this article described and analyzed the perception and changes of marriage and family, focusing on the attitudes towards marriage, divorce, childbearing, cohabitation, homosexuality and intergenerational support between adult children and their old parents. The article found that currently Chinese family values exhibit a clear tendency towards a mixture of a traditional Chinese way of "close intergenerational relationships" and "pure relationship" influenced by modernity and post-modernity. On one hand, under the influence of accepting individualistic concepts like equality, freedom, and democracy, people tend to emphasise more the liberation of the human being and pursue self-realisation, along with marital views emphasising more individual independence and autonomy. On the other hand, from the perspective of integenerational values, China does not show the post-modern tendency that features the atomisation of family members and the disappearance of family links, which have appeared in Western societies. The mixed tendency and the familistic values of today's China are discussed in the context of Chinese welfare system transforming in which the family ties play more important role in economic and instrumental supporting for individuals.
Keywords: attitude, family value, familism, marriage, intergenerational support.
ИЗМЕНЕНИЯ В УСТАНОВКАх И ТЕНДЕНЦИЯх БРАКА И СЕМЬИ В СОВРЕМЕННОМ КИТАЕ
На основе результатов исследования «Изменение семейных ценностей» (SFVC), собранных в 2008 г., в статье описаны и проанализированы изменения в восприятии института семьи и брака, в контексте отношений к браку, разводу, деторождению, сожительству, гомосексуализму и межпоколенческой поддержке между взрослыми детьми и их пожилыми родителями. В статье установлено, что в настоящее время китайские семейные ценности демонстрируют четкую тенденцию к смешению традиционного китайского способа «близких отношений между поколениями» и «чистыми отношениями» под влиянием современности и постсовременности. С одной стороны, под влиянием принятия таких индивидуалистских установок, как равенство, свобода и демократия, люди, как правило, склонны акцентировать внимание на стремлении человека к самореализации, наряду с брачными отношениями подчеркивая индивидуальную независимость и автономию. С другой стороны, с точки зрения межпоко-ленческих ценностей, для Китая не характерна постсовременная тенденция, характеризуемая атомизацией членов семьи и исчезновением семейных связей, которая появилась в западных
1 This paper has been published as a part of the chapter "The Transition of Chinese Families over the Past Thirty Years (1978-2010)" in Zambor Rajkai edited (2014), Family and Social Change in Socialist and Post-Socialist Societies: Changes and Continuity in Eastern Europe and East Asia, Netherlands: Brill.
обществах. Смешанная тенденция и фамилистические ценности в сегодняшнем Китае обсуждаются в контексте трансформирования китайской системы социального благосостояния, в которой семейные узы играют более важную роль в экономической и инструментальной поддержке индивидуумов.
Ключевые слова: установка, ценность семьи, фамилизм (семейственность), брак, межпо-коленческая поддержка.
Family values mainly include two aspects: the perception of marriage and the perception of generational relationships, in other words, people's basic ideas and opinions of the husband - wife relationship (marital relationship) and the parent-child relationship (blood relationship). To be more specific, the perception of marriage includes: people's basic ideas on love, expectations toward their spouses, opinions on different forms of marriage, attitudes towards sexual behavior, etc. [1]. The perception of generational relationships includes the desire and purpose of raising children, the wish and expectation for supporting parents, the acknowledgement of generational authority, etc. As the connotations of 'family values' are extensive, we are not able to analyze all these ideas and notions in this chapter, and therefore only those indicators that are commonly used in the research community and are most debated by the general public will be examined.
The data in this paper all come from the Survey on Family Value Changes (SFVC) unless otherwise indicated. The survey was carried out in the city of Shanghai and Lanzhou (lies in Northwest China) in 2008. A stratified multistage probability sampling method was adopted and families were selected from forty-three neighbourhood/village committees, twenty-two streets/towns, nine districts/counties of Shanghai, and thirty-three neighbourhood/village committees, ten streets/ towns, four districts/counties of Lanzhou. Family members aged between twenty and sixty-five, and those whose birthdays were nearest to 1 July were chosen to be interviewees. The door-to-door questionnaire interviews were carried out by trained interviewers. Of the final valid samples, 1,200 were from Shanghai and 1,000 from Lanzhou. The average age of the interviewees was 43.4 [2].
Attitudes towards Intergenerational Support
The Idea of Filial Piety Is Still Generally Accepted
The traditional Chinese notion of 'filial piety' has various connotations. It refers to 'the elders rule' culture and makes up a complete system which focuses on familism, covering the daily support of parents, inheritance commitments and property, funerals and sacrifice, etc. China has forcefully adopted the policy of family planning and altered old customs and habits, advocating ceremonies which conform to simplicity. Within this context, the culture of filial piety that emphasises 'bearing sons to carry on the family line, leaving future generations for the family' and 'burying and sacrificing to the dead with proper ceremony' has been greatly restrained. As individuals have few choices in this respect, this chapter will not go into this issue in detail, but chooses only four aspects for analysis: supporting and waiting upon parents, attendance upon elders, bringing glory to parents, and being obedient to parents.
Table 1. Attitudes towards the four aspects of filial piety
Indicators Question items Sample numbers Agreement Mean* value Standard deviation
Support parents Children should try their best to support their parents and make their parents live more comfortably 2,200 94.3 4.46 0.704
Attend upon parents Children should live together with their parents when their parents become old and are not able to take care of themselves 2,200 83.2 4.10 0.947
Bring glory to parents Children should strive for a promising future so as to bring glory/pride to their parents/ family 2,200 86.1 4.27 0.901
Be obedient to the parents The authority of father in the family should be respected whatever happens 2,200 74.5 3.90 1.068
* The range of mean value is from 1 to 5. Options 1-5 stand for "totally disagree", "not totally agree", "not be able to clearly express it/it doesn't matter", "somewhat agree with it", "totally agree" respectively.
Source: Survey on Family Value Changes (2008).
First of all, traditional views of filial piety are still accepted by the majority of people in general. Just as the results displayed in table 1 suggest, in terms of mean value, the interviewees' attitudes towards "supporting parents", "attending upon parents", "bringing glory to the parents" were "somewhat agree" or "totally agree", and their attitudes towards "be obedient to the parents" were close to "somewhat agree". In terms of percentage, over 95 % people accepted the idea of supporting the parents, and over 80 % people accepted the idea of attending upon the parents, whereas only the idea of being obedient to the parents received less agreement (less than 80 %). The results of further grouping according to educational level indicate that the relation between education and the idea of bringing glory to, and being obedient to, the parents present a negative linear correlation, but the influence of education on the idea of supporting parents and attending upon parents is not obvious. That is to say, the core view on filial piety which emphasises supporting and attending upon one's parents is recognised extensively by all social groups. The study on current generational relationships by other researchers also suggest that there are no fundamental changes in people's attitudes towards supporting the aged, although changes have taken place in attitudes towards the traditional views on filial piety. The aged need care and support from the next generation, whereas the next generation also feels bound to look after and support their parents [3].
Secondly, almost 90 per cent of people accepted the idea of bringing glory to their parents, which suggests that the spiritually "harmonious symbiotic relationship" between parents and children still receives great attention. Further analysis demonstrates that interviewees who did not have brothers and sisters preferred the idea of bringing glory to their parents, which may be due to the fact that an only child receives more care and expectations from parents and has a stronger desire to reward their parents spiritually. Just as Sun Longji concluded, the Western way
of "cutting the psychological umbilical cord between parents and children" is not a tradition in China, because separation between parents and children means "the severing of the parent-child relationship" [4, p. 194-226]. This cultural psychology that has shaped Chinese people's expectations from parents and children is very different from an individualistic culture. Mental and emotional separation between parents and children makes Chinese people sad and generates thoughts of "failing to pay back their parents", and thus a sense of impiety can develop. The separation also creates a sense of having a thankless child, in turn suggesting "their failure in raising their children". It also makes people have a sense of humiliation, which means family misfortune [5]. "Being grateful" to one's parents is a source of children's recognition of their self-value and a source of spiritual comfort for the parents, and in China at present it still has a value function similar to religion [6, p. 181].
Thirdly, authority based on the idea of being obedient to parents has received relatively less approval. Although over 70 % of interviewees supported the idea, it still received the lowest approval compared with other indicators of filial piety. This suggests that the concept "filial piety is obedience", as advocated by Confucian culture, has become greatly challenged in China today. Moreover, the results of multivariate analysis indicate that regional economic development, urbanisation, and improved educational level all greatly reduced the approval of the idea of being obedient to one's parents, suggesting that this idea is declining. The challenge to this idea reflects the fact that the authority of children has been rising and the relationship between generations has become equal in China; a trend that has been more obvious in one-child families. As some scholars have pointed out, intergenerational relationships tend to be more equal and democratic in China today, and interge-nerational interactions pay more attention to spiritual exchange and independence, which has been one of the important consequences of the one-child policy since it was adopted over thirty years ago [7; 8].
Parental Concerns over Adult Children Receive Less Approval
In traditional intergenerational relationships, the filial piety of children is associated with the affection of parents. Researchers point out that there is never an absolute equivalence between the nurturing by the parental generation and the feedback from the offspring [9]. In fact, the intergenerational feedback model, and that of the family which cares for the elderly, can be realised only when parental "responsibility ethics" are emphasised. For example, only when the parental generation try their best to take care of their children and expect nothing in return, and attempt to reduce their children's burden in supporting the aged, can a good relationship be formed between the parents and their children [10]. As mentioned above, in the familistic value system, parents' responsibility for their children lasts for a lifetime, and they should not only raise their children to grow up, but also raise their children "well", which means providing the best education for their children, helping them to establish their own family, and looking after their grandchildren. Table1 displays four indicators that express ideas of parental support for children. One of the four ideas refers to a general description of the parental image according to traditional
virtues - "parents would sacrifice every-thing for the sake of their children" ("sacrifice for their children" in brief); the other three indicators involve responsibilities shouldered by parents for their adult children during their different stages of life: "parents should bear all the costs for their children's higher education" ("bear all the costs" in brief), "parents should provide a wedding room for their son/pay down-payments on property for their children" ("preparing a wedding room" in brief), and "grandparents are bound to look after their grandchildren" ("looking after grandchildren" in brief).
Table 2. Attitudes towards concepts related to parents supporting children
Indicators Question items Sample numbers Agreement Mean* value Standard deviation
Parents would sacrifice everything for the sake of their children 2199 57,8% 3.50 1.316
Being concerned about children Parents should bear all the costs for their children's higher education 2200 74,3% 3.87 1.105
Parents should provide a wedding room for their son/pay down-payments on property for their children 2199 46,4% 3.20 1.188
Grandparents are bound to look after their grandchildren 2200 33,1% 2.76 1.306
Note: *Value range from 1 to 5 and options 1-5 stand for "totally disagree", "not totally agree", "not be able to express it clearly/it doesn't matter", "somewhat agree with it", "totally agree" respectively.
Source: Survey on Family Value Changes (2008).
The results of table 1 and table 2 indicate that the general public gives much higher approval ratings to the idea of filial piety than to the idea of being endlessly concerned about children. The approval ratings of the four indicators demonstrate that the idea that "parents should bear all the costs for their children's higher education" enjoys the highest approval rating, more than 70 per cent. However, this is still lower than the approval rating of "being obedient to parents", which has the lowest approval rating among the ideal views on filial piety. The overall attitudes tend to be those which "somewhat agree". Among the other three indicators, the lowest approval rating refers to "grandparents are bound to look after their grandchildren", only reaching 30 per cent and the overall attitude tending to be "not totally agree". As for "parents should provide a wedding room for their son", the approval rating is not more than 50 per cent and the overall attitude tends to be "not able to express it clearly". The general idea that "parents would sacrifice everything for the sake of their children" receives an almost 60 per cent approval rating, and the overall attitudes tend to be something between "not able to express it clearly" and "quite agree with it". In addition, the standard deviations of this group's indicators are generally greater than those related to the idea of filial piety. This suggests that the interviewees hold scattered and diversified attitudes towards the traditional view that parents should shoulder unlimited responsibilities for their children.
Compared with the approval ratings of above 70 % or even above 90 per cent, the approval rating for parents' responsibility in the culture of traditional familism is not high. In fact, our survey also shows that 64,2 % per cent of interviewees clearly agree that an 'adult child over 18 should be independent/earn his/her own living'. This suggests that the interviewees prefer the modern value of adult children breaking away from their parents' protection and earning their own living. Familism Makes Family Resources Flow to the Offspring The statistical results of intergenerational support show that the interviewees who have old parents and also adult children give more help to their adult children than to their old parents. Table 3 demonstrates that the share of those 'often' giving adult children economic, housework, and emotional support are much higher than those supporting their parents. Furthermore, when comparing the data between urban and rural areas, we find that the intergenerational support preference for offspring in rural areas is more obvious than in urban areas. Based on this, we can conclude that the aged (grandparents) in rural areas get less support from their families than those in urban areas.
Table 3. The support preferences of interviewees who have both parents and adult children (%)
1 2 3 4 MV SN F test
Economic Support To parents R 13,4 43,3 38,8 9,5 1,39 231 5,147*
U 22,4 21,1 30,8 25,7 1,60 237
To child R 14,5 17,4 34,0 34,0 1,88 231 4,107*
U 28,2 14,1 20,7 36,9 1,66 241
Houswork support To parents R 6,9 29,9 46,8 16,5 1,73 231 3,801
U 15,2 20,7 22,8 41,4 1,90 237
To child R 18,0 7,0 27,2 47,8 2,05 228 2,039
U 15,9 7,3 17,7 59,1 2,20 232
Emotional support To parents R 6,1 29,0 48,5 16,5 1,75 231 19 475***
U 7,2 16,0 35,9 40,9 2,11 237
To child R 6,8 15,3 45,5 32,3 2,03 235 3,622
U 7,1 14,1 31,5 47,3 2,19 241
Notes: R = Rural, U = Urban; Value range: 1 = No, 2 = Seldom, 3 = Sometimes, 4 = Often; MV = Mean value; SN = Sample numbers; Significance level: * P < 0.05; *** P < 0.001. Source: Survey on Family Value Changes (2008).
The phenomenon of "attaching greater importance to the aged than the young" in theory but "attaching greater importance to the young than the aged" in reality suggests that intergenerational relationships still retain the characteristics of the traditional "corporate model" in China today in spite of the fact that parents' authority has been declining. This corporate model emphasises that family is an economic unit which is formed by members who are absolutely rational and who are clearly aware of their own interests. According to the explanation of this model, the various forms of the Chinese family structure and relationship as well as the changes to them are
all driven by the pursuit of maximising family economic interests [26, p. 5-8; 12]. In accordance with the Pareto efficiency principle of resource distribution, children would use the lowest-cost method to satisfy their parents' needs for intergenera-tional support, and thus would maximise the overall welfare of individuals and the family [13; 14]. On one hand, offspring are in the life-cycle which requires more family economic resources and labour resources, and the reason why adult children obtain more support than the aged parents is due to the rational principle of each receiving aid according to his or her needs in the family 'corporate' unit. On the other hand, since it is the development of the younger generation that decides the future of the family, investing more resources in the younger generation is a family strategy which would be most in accordance with the family's future interest. We can see that when elderly people do not possess family resources they usually obtain only the lowest basic necessities of life even if intergenerational cohesion and cooperative nature are kept unchanged. As a result, the life of elderly people becomes more difficult in rural families that usually have only very limited resources. Since the model of this kind of familistic cohesiveness between generations continues to exist, laying a social and psychological foundation to a certain degree, elderly people's interests tend to be largely marginalised so that they have no choice but to accept their position of being ignored. Middle-aged people are conflicted in that they are grateful to their elders but have to take care of their children at the same time. The family has great expectations of the younger generation that enjoys all the love, affection, and resources of all other generations.
Age Differences in Marriage and Family values
Marital View among Young People Tends to Be More Diversified
As was mentioned above, young people under thirty-five hold much more tolerant attitudes towards premarital sex than middle-or old-aged people. Table 4 shows that young people under thirty-five also show significant differences from other generations when it comes to other indicators of marital views.
First of all, the traditional views on getting married and having children as well as being faithful to one's husband unto death have been broken somewhat. Young people under the age of thirty-five give more support to the idea that "pursuing personal happiness is more important than tolerating an inharmonious marriage" and "no childbearing after marriage" than to the idea that "one would marry whatever happens". Secondly, people are likely to be more rational and open on the issue of cohabitation. As we have mentioned above, the acceptance of cohabitation is not high in general, however, significance tests indicate that young people under the age of thirty-five hold a strikingly different set of ideal views from people above thirty-six. Young people under the age of thirty-five are more willing to accept the idea that "cohabitation could make the two sides know each other before marriage so as to judge whether they are fit for each other or not". They are more willing to recognise the legitimacy of premarital cohabitation, and they are more willing to agree that "single men and women can live together even if they do not plan to marry". Thirdly, young people under the age of thirty-five are significantly more tolerant of
homosexuality than people above thirty-six, which suggests that there have been remarkable improvements recently in the perception of respecting personal choice and privacy.
Table 4. the age difference on the attitudes towards marital diversity
Indicators Question items Mean value F test
Under 35 years old Over 36 years old
N = 594 N = 1606
Marriage, divorce, childbearing One would marry anyway 3,78 3,95 11,555**
Pursuing personal happiness is more important than tolerating an inharmonious marriage 3,44 3,21 19,061***
No childbearing after marrying 1,84 1,69 17455***
Cohabitation Cohabitation could make the two sides know each other before marriage so as to judge whether they are fit for each other or not 2,76 2,28 77,850***
Single man and woman could live together so long as they intend to marry 2,56 2,23 40,933***
Single men and women could live together even if they do not plan to marry 2,13 1,79 55,087***
Homosexuality Homosexuality is sexual orientation/practice that belongs to personal freedom and deserves respect 2,89 2,26 130,142***
Homosexual families should be accepted by society 2,72 2,14 112,995***
Notes: The value range is from 1 to 5. 1-5 stand for "totally disagree", "not totally agree", "not be able to express it clearly/it doesn't matter", "somewhat agree with it", "totally agree" respectively. Significance level: ** P < 0.01; *** P < 0.001.
Source: Survey on Family Value Changes (2008).
It is necessary to clarify that, compared with most Western countries, China has never been strongly against intimacy between two persons of the same sex, however, the general knowledge and recognition of homosexuality is also different from Western societies, which put it into rational frameworks in terms of civil rights; or social, political and religious problems; and which discuss it openly. The majority of Chinese people still consider homosexuality a private and moral affair. Family relationships and ethics are still very important in the daily life of Chinese people, and homosexuality is often taken as a harmless private affair since the act will not produce children. It also received much less attention at the time before there was risk-consciousness of aids. However, as homosexual couples are not able to produce children and this is against traditional Chinese family ethics, it is more difficult for the public to accept homosexual families. The traditional view on filial piety and moral ethics hold to the idea that "having no male heir is the gravest of three cardinal offences against filial piety". This makes homosexuals bear significant pressure from parents and relatives and makes the general public reluctant to recognise the combination of homosexual partners as "families".
No Decline Can Be Concluded in Filial Piety
There is a moral anxiety over a decline of 'filial piety' that mainly refers to young people. However, this study finds that young people are more willing to support their parents rather than neglect them when compared with middle or old-aged people. First of all, among the four aspects of the idea of filial piety, a significant age difference appears only in the case of "supporting parents" and attending upon parents, but this does not mean that filial piety is declining among young people (see table 5). On the contrary, interviewees of thirty- five years old and under have a stronger recognition of the ideas that "children should try their best to support their parents and make their parents live more comfortably" and that "children should live together with their parents when their parents become old and are not able to take care of themselves" than those over thirty-six.
Table 5. The age difference of attitudes towards intergenerational support (%)
1 2 3 4 5 MV SN F test
Support parents 35- 0,5 1,5 2,2 34 61,8 4,55 594 12,200***
36+ 0,4 2,4 3,4 41,0 52,8 4,43 1606
Attend upon parents 35- 0,7 4,4 7,4 42,3 45,3 4,27 594 25,401***
36+ 1,7 9,3 7,5 45,8 35,7 4,04 1606
Sacrifice for children 35- 8,8 39,2 9,1 22,6 20,4 3,07 594 92,610***
36+ 4,0 23,5 9,2 29,1 34,3 3,66 1605
Pay college fee 35- 2,5 28,8 9,6 38,4 20,7 3,46 594 116,137***
36+ 1,4 12,9 5,9 42,3 37,5 4,02 1606
Provide wedding room 35- 8,2 34,2 18,5 30,3 8,8 2,97 594 31,796***
36+ 4,9 27,9 18,1 31,2 17,8 3,29 1605
Look after grandchild 35- 15,8 47,6 11,6 17,7 7,2 2,53 594 25,839***
36+ 14,2 39,9 9,8 19,4 16,7 2,85 1606
Notes: 1 = Totally disagree; 2 = Not totally disagree; 3 = Not able to express it clearly; 4 = Quite agree; 5 = Totally agree; MV = Mean value; SN = Sample number; Significance level: *** P < 0.001. Source: Survey on Family Value Changes (2008).
Young people are not only more willing to agree to be kind to their parents but also more willing to live together with their old-aged parents. This result is different from the idea that young people stress privacy more and are not willing to live together with parents and to bear the burdens of family. The phenomenon that young people have a stronger perception of being kind to parents has something, on the one hand, to do with the life-cycle. The study of filial piety carried out in Taiwan shows that children and teenagers who are not at a complicated stage of life hold a relatively absolute, concrete and pure idea of filial piety and take it for granted. However adults who are faced with many more life and career objectives hold a more complicated idea of filial piety that is not so absolute and is in accordance with certain other principles [15, p. 99-101]. On the other hand, as a result of the one-child policy, young people under the age of thirty-five have more positive emotional interactions with their parents while receiving more love and care from them too. The deep driving force for them to be filial towards their parents may decrease due to the pressure of
public opinion or changing moral standards, but this force may also become stronger because of the "love" for their parents deep in their hearts [16]. Meanwhile, since they are the only child of the family, young people under the age of thirty-five may have a stronger sense of responsibility and pressure than people in large families.
Secondly, as for the four indicators on caring about children, all the interviewed young people of thirty-five years old and under are significantly more likely to disagree than middle and old-aged people. The reason why young people believe in the idea of intergenerational support of 'attaching greater importance to the old than the young' may be due to the fact that they do not have their own children yet. Besides, they are more likely to disagree with the idea of sacrificing for their children, with this being their ideal judgement for a kind of state of lifestyle to which they have as yet no direct connection. On the other hand, it is also related to the condition that recently young people obtain more help from their parents. Our survey shows that the average economic aid young people of thirty-five and under get from parents is 7.8 times more than that of people who are thirty-six years old and above (9,128 rmb versus 1,171 rmb). About 54.5 per cent of interviewees of thirty-five and under 'often' receive help from parents in doing housework, while among people of thirty-six and above, only 21,0 % per cent receive such help.
It can be argued that the traditional Chinese altruistic responsibility ethic may also lead to this different attitude, alongside life-cycle effects and the emotional factor in actual intergenerational mutual benefits. That is to say, old-aged interviewees think that as parents they should follow the moral standard of being "good parents" and try to relieve the burdens on their children, so they prefer caring about their children; but young interviewees follow the moral standard of being a "filial child" and hold that they should try to think of and look after their parents, thus they prefer taking care of their parents. Similar findings also appear in other studies discussing the ethics of intergenerational responsibility. For example, Martin Whyte studied the intergenerational relationships in Baoding City and found that parents are more willing (than their children) to agree that "people should be more concerned about caring for their own children than about caring for their parents or parents-in-law" (the proportion of parents and children who agree with the above idea: 46 % versus 31 %). Parents were also seen to be more willing to agree that "young people should be more concerned about their careers than about caring for their parents" (the proportion of parents and children who agreed with the above idea: 71 % versus 38 %)1. Whatever the reason is, the study could not prove the idea that contemporary young people are extremely egotistical, demand from parents endlessly, and disregard their responsibility to support their parents.
Conclusion and Discussion
A Mixed Tendency of Loose Marriage Relationships and Close Intergeneratio-nal Relationships
Contemporary Chinese family values present a quite clear mixed tendency of traditional "close intergenerational relationships" with "pure relationships", in-
1 The statements of the two indicators are as follow: "people should be more concerned about caring for their own children than about caring for their parents or parents-in-law"; "young people should be more concerned about their careers than about caring for their parents" [21].
fluenced by both modernity and post-modernity1. On one hand, with the general improvement of education and the improvement of urbanisation and industrialisation, the development of Chinese family values presents a quite clear feature of modernity, that is, as a result of accepting modern concepts such as equality, freedom, and democracy, people in China tend to emphasise more the liberation of the human being and the pursuit of self-realisation; and as to marital views they tend to emphasise more individual independence and autonomy. In line with the conclusions of many previous empirical studies, this study also suggests that young people have increasingly open sexual views and stronger self-consciousness [17], and the tolerance for premarital sex and cohabitation is increasing [18]. Compared with people born in earlier decades, the acceptance of premarital sex, cohabitation, and homosexuality by young people under the age of thirty-five is increasing. The whole of society shows a tendency that the older an individual is, the more conservative his or her marital views are.
On the other hand, from the perspective of intergenerational relationships, China does not show the phenomenon of individualization - the post-modern tendency that features the atomisation of family members and the disappearance of family links, which have seen in Western societies when it comes to values and attitudes [19]. People in China rather tend to keep showing relatively strong family values and attitudes. The weakening of intergenerational relationships and the disappearance of family communities characterising Western societies are largely absent in China. On the contrary, in recent years there has been a stronger tendency to lay stress more on basic family obligations, wherein people enjoy closer intergenerational relationships, maintaining the features of the aforementioned "corporate" model of family. In terms of marriage, there is still a high level of affirmation for the value of marriage and high expectation of faithfulness within marriage. Furthermore, the differences between generations in this area are tiny. Aside from this, the approval rating for the cohabitation of middle- and old-aged people is higher than that for cohabitation by unmarried young people, and the objection to homosexual marriage is stronger than that towards homosexual acts.
These survey results indicate to a certain degree that people in China are still more concerned about non-emotional factors like economic interest and existing family relationships when they judge whether certain lifestyles are rational or not. As for intergenerational relationships, our survey does not find any tendency towards a decline in filial piety. The survey data suggest that the idea of filial piety still enjoys an absolutely mainstream position. Moreover, among the eight traditional familistic views on intergenerational relationships, interviewees are more willing to agree with the idea of being filial to their parents rather than being concerned about their adult children. On the other hand, data results show that young people's ideal view of supporting their parents has not weakened; on the contrary, their ideal view on intergenerational relationships tends to be the one of "attaching greater
1 Pure relationship refers to "an intimate relationship formed for the sake of an intimate relationship". This kind of relationship can be maintained only when both sides are satisfied with what they get (mainly with reference to feelings of intimacy and love) from the relationship [6, p. 77].
importance to the elder than the younger". They are more traditional and closer to the ideal view of supporting their parents. All these results show that Chinese families managed to maintain a strong familistic culture during the rapid process of modernization.
Familistic Ideals of Intergenerational Relations Combined with Individualism
In terms of intergenerational relationships, contemporary Chinese still have a strong wish to unite across generations, but this "traditional" wish is not just a simple copy and continuation of the previous familistic culture of inter-generational relationships. Instead, it has some distinguishing features of individualistic culture, such as the rise of emotional relationships, the decline of authoritarian relationships, and the sense of obligation with unlimited liability. As psychological studies in Taiwan have found, the development of modernisation itself does promote the transformation of traditional intergenerational relationships. In modern Taiwan, individualistic culture and traditional filial piety have gradually transformed into a new filial piety based on individualism. The traditional views of filial piety include the authority of parents and the duties of children, accompanied by fixed role orientations. These have now gradually been transformed into new notions of filial piety that include the coexistence of authority and duties on the part of both the parents and the children, accompanied by flexible roles and emotional orientations. The influence of authority and exchange has fallen and fulfilling filial piety is not seen as an attitude and behaviour forced on children by their parents, but as a method and channel for self-fulfilment [20, p. 36-45; 21, p. 10].
The comparison between the generations in this study shows that the advancing of age brings about both the positive effect of being kind to one's parents and the negative effect of being concerned about one's children endlessly. Young people have a strong sense of responsibility in behaviour towards their parents but they seem to have a strong sense of self-consciousness in dealing with children, whereas the idea of unlimited altruism seems to have weakened. The study of young migrant workers conducted by Mette H. Hansen and Pang Cuiming points out that young people's sense of obligation should not be misunderstood as altruism in traditional familism. The foundation of this sense of obligation is to give an actual and practical evaluation to a kind of life in which individuals have the right to pursue individual interests, while at the same time family is still guaranteed as the stable source of a sense of security. Family is the only source for people to obtain social security when they are confronted with disease, need for care and affection, and when they suffer from property loss or unemployment. For young people, family is the indisputable "collective" having social, emotional, and psychological values. On one hand they emphasise that their closest relatives and family are their only important "collective", on the other hand they persist in striving for their own interests, rights, and ambitions as individuals [8]. Therefore, it can be argued that the strong sense of responsibility of being kind to one's parents among young people today is a form of "modern familism", that is, an ideal view of intergenerational relationships based on individualistic values.
Before the national reform of the economic system, welfare mainly came from the individual's Danwei (work unit), and family played a limited role. However, after entering the twenty-first century, with life risks caused by the disintegration of the Danwei system and the emergence of the market economy, the family's role as a safety net in personal life has increased significantly. Furthermore, there is a growing number of private enterprises and family firms, and there is also an increase in family income. In particular, the foundation of the stock market and the commercialisation of housing have further promoted this increase of family income. These factors contributed to the growth of property owned by parents that could be inherited by their children; house prices have also escalated rapidly and parents have to invest more for the wedding room for their children, sometimes having to use the savings of three generations to purchase an apartment. However, the availability of child day-care services lags behind demand and young working couples often have to depend on their parents to look after the third generation. All these structural factors constitute the forces that promote a closer family intergenerational relationship. Hence, on the path of China's rapid modernisation, it is becoming more and more difficult for individuals to live without the guarantees and assistance of their families, despite the fact that a sort of individualistic culture is currently becoming more and more popular. As a result, in comparison with the period of time before the economic reform and opening-up, the importance of family values has been enhanced rather than threatened.
At the same time, in having a strong sense of responsibility to be kind to one's parents, contemporary young people present a sort of "modern familism", which refers to an ideal view of intergenerational relationships based on individualistic values. On one hand they emphasise that their closest relatives and family members are their only important "collective", whereas, on the other hand, they persist in striving for their own interests, rights, and ambitions as individuals. Although the tolerance of non-marital intimate relationship is increasing, the survey results presented in this article also indicate to a certain degree that people in China are still more concerned about non self-expressive factors like economic interest and existing family relationships when they judge their private life. This state is also in conformity with the definition of the dilemma of the individualised Asian without individualism, as proposed by Chang Kyung-Sup (2010).
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Date accepted 18.10.2015.
