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Precious Son, Reliable Daughter: Redefining Son Preference and Parent–Child Relations in Migrant Households in Urban China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 February 2017

Minhua Ling
Minhua Ling*
Affiliation:
The Chinese University ofHong Kong. Email: [email protected].
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Abstract

This article examines the parent–child relations within rural-to-urban migrant households to explore the continuations and changes in the patrilineal family system under the forces of migration and urbanization in late-socialist China. Based on ethnographic data collected between 2008 and 2015 in Shanghai, it takes a processual approach to understand son preference as a contextualized family practice and examines four aspects of parent–child relations in migrant households: reproductive strategy, childrearing practices, educational investment, and parental expectation of adult children. Through exploring intimate negotiations between migrant parents and their children over material and emotional resources at different life stages, this article demonstrates how the gendered parent–child relations in migrant households in Shanghai have been shifting away from the traditional focus on sons and gradually giving way to pragmatic adjustments and emotional redefinition under the forces of socialist institutions and capitalist markets.

摘要

本文着眼于城乡移民家庭中的亲子关系, 以此探讨中国社会主义晚期父系家庭体制在城乡移民大潮、城镇化影响下的延续及变迁。作者根据2008–2015 年间在上海田野调查所得的定性数据, 描绘了移民家庭亲子关系中的四个侧面: 生育策略、育儿实践、教育投资以及父母对成年子女的期望, 从而以动态的视角将重男轻女这一性别歧视阐释为情境化的家庭实践。通过研究第一代城乡移民和他们孩子之间在不同生活阶段就物质及情感资源分配上的亲密互动和协商, 本文指出城乡移民家庭中父母与子女的关系由于受到资本主义市场和社会主义户口制度及其框架下教育、医保、求职等壁垒的多重影响, 正在从传统的优待男生转化为更为实际的调整和情感上的再定义。

Keywords

Chinaparent–child relationsson preferencemigrant familyurbanizationgenderchildrearingShanghai亲子关系重男轻女城乡移民家庭城市化性别育儿上海
Type
Articles
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 229 , March 2017 , pp. 150 - 171
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Copyright
Copyright © SOAS University of London 2017 

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