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Downward transfer of support and care: understanding the cultural lag in rural China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 December 2020

F. X. Qiu ,
H. J. Zhan Open the ORCID record for H. J. Zhan [Opens in a new window] ,
J. Liu  and
P. M. Barrett
F. X. Qiu
Affiliation:
Department of History and Sociology, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, China
H. J. Zhan*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
J. Liu
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
P. M. Barrett
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

The Chinese culture of filial piety has historically emphasised children's responsibility for their ageing parents. Little is understood regarding the inverse: parents’ responsibility and care for their adult children. This paper uses interviews with 50 families living in rural China's Anhui Province to understand intergenerational support in rural China. Findings indicate that parents in rural China take on large financial burdens in order to sustain patrilineal traditions by providing housing and child care for their adult sons. These expectations lead some rural elders to become migrant workers in order to support their adult sons while others provide live-in grandchild-care, moving into their children's urban homes or bringing grandchildren into their own homes. As the oldest rural generations begin to require ageing care of their own, migrant children are unable to provide the sustained care and support expected within the cultural tradition of xiao. This paper adds to the small body of literature that examines the downward transfer of support from parents to their adult children in rural China. The authors argue that there is an emerging cultural rupture in the practice of filial piety – while the older generation is fulfilling their obligations of upbringing and paying for adult children's housing and child care; these adult children are not necessarily available or committed to the return of care for their ageing parents. The authors reveal cultural and structural lags that leave millions of rural ageing adults vulnerable in the process of urbanisation in rural China.

Keywords

intergenerational supportfilial pietymigrationrural China
Type
Article
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 42 , Issue 6 , June 2022 , pp. 1422 - 1447
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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