[MUSIC] Hi, in this module we're going to talk about the Chinese family. The Chinese family has changed tremendously over the course of the 20th century. Before the 20th century, the traditional Chinese family was characterized by patterns that were very different from those in the West, and even different from those in neighboring countries. People sought to live together in multi generational households, grandparents, parents, and children all living together in the same household. They couldn't always do that, because death rates were high, and a lot of people never lived to become grandparents. Nevertheless, that was the ideal. Marriages were arranged. Until well into the 20th century, people didn't choose their own spouses. Their spouses were chosen for them by their parents, or other senior relatives. When people married, they did so at early ages. Women often married in their late teens or early 20s. Men often married in their early or mid 20s. When people did marry and started having children, if they lived long enough, on average they might have as many as four, five, or six children. Divorce was rare. Adoption was common, not adoption as we know it now, but rather adoption between related individuals. Brothers or cousins might trade sons back and forth to even out their numbers of sons. Polygyny was practiced among the wealthiest and most high status men. That is, men took extra wives or took concubines. Finally, gender roles were highly segregated. Men were outside the household engaged in economic interactions and social interactions. Whereas women were largely confined to the interior of the household. Now when we look at the family now, many aspects have changed rather dramatically. We now see mainly households made up of couples living with their children. In some cases, they may have one or two parents living with them, but households in which all three generations are living together remain rare. Arranged marriages are now quite rare, most people select spouses on their own. They may be introduced to potential spouses by their parents, or by their friends or co-workers, but it's fundamentally different from what prevailed before the middle of the 20th century. People are marrying later. They're still not marrying as late as in many other Western countries, or some developed countries in East Asia. Nevertheless, they're marrying at later ages that they used to. And in urban areas, some people are marrying much later. Obviously, birth rates are much lower. When people get married, they may just have one or in certain situations, two children. In the last 10 or 15 years, divorce has become very common. Even though up to just 20 years ago or so, it was extremely rare. Adoption, of the traditional form, where brothers or cousins traded sons back and forth, has become extremely rare. Polygyny is illegal and monogamy is the predominant form of marriage. Finally, gender roles are much less segregated than they were in the past. Women obviously, participate in the labor force, they take jobs. And in some cases, men are doing more work inside the household. Let's look at an example of one way in which the Chinese family has changed dramatically just in the last few decades. Let's look at divorce. As recently as the early 90s, the divorce rate in China was extremely low, 0.44 per 1000. Then as recently as 2002, it was still quite low by the standards of many other countries, 0.90 per 1000. But then in 2003, the laws related to divorce changed. It became easier for people to get divorced. Divorce rates skyrocketed. And so now there are 2.67 per 1000, higher than in many Western countries, and higher than in many other countries around the world. While on the one hand, we can tie this change to the change in the laws that took place in 2003, there's still a bigger story about why divorce increased so rapidly. And trying to understand what the social and economic forces were that drove this very rapid transformation from a era of traditional behavior, where divorce rates where extremely low, to one where divorce rates are again, higher than in many other parts of the world. At the same time, in recent decades, the average age at which people in China marry, has been on the increase. So people don't marry as early as they did just 20 or 30 years ago. This is especially the case in urban areas, where you're now seeing places like Beijing, and Shanghai, average ages at marriage of 29 or 30. And finally, female labor force participation. Actually, one of the big stories for female labor force participation, and females moving out of the household, actually took place before this figure begins in the middle of the 20th century after 1949. Especially in urban areas, women were given opportunities in large employers. So women's labor force participation in China has been fairly high. Although, one of the big topics of study in social science research on China right now, is why in the last few decades the female labor force participation rate in China, has if anything declined slightly in conjunction with the economic reforms. In closing, I'd like to draw attention to some of the most important topics for study in the family for China. Specifically, understanding the causes and consequences of family change is a central task for social scientists doing research on China. It's especially challenging because there were certain kinds of changes that were promoted by state policy. And were perhaps relatively easy to understand. So we do know that at certain points in the 20th century, like in the 1950s, the state sought to discourage arranged marriage. And then in the late 1970s it sought to delay marriage. But there were other big changes in the family that happened on their own. Sometimes in opposition to state policy. For example, multi-generational households largely disappeared after the 1950s. Even though the state never specifically discouraged parents, and grandparents, and children living together. Adoption of the traditional sort, that is between brothers and cousins, also disappeared, or became very rare after the 1950s and 60s, even though the state never sought to discourage it. And then the state has never promoted late marriage, especially in recent years, and especially not in the urban areas where marriage is rising most quickly. And certainly the state has not sought to promote divorce. And yet, as we just saw, divorce rates have been increasing quickly. So there are many topics for us to consider, if we want to conduct research on the family in contemporary China.
