Brotherhood Considered – Responsibility and Tensions Concerning Elderly Support in North China

Abstract

The culture of the Han-Chinese designates brotherhood as a valuable form of alliance. Codes of behaviour towards one's brother(s) are ascribed in cultural norms. However, within the concept and practices of kinship, ambiguous borderlines of hierarchy and egalitarianism among brothers leave certain areas free for contesting individual interests. This article takes an extended case study of conflict between two brothers in their old age over their elderly support provisions to analyse how notions of brotherhood are re-shaped as Chinese peasants are confronted with serious social insecurity due to lower incomes and insufficient institutional arrangements for elderly support; how conventional concepts of hierarchy, equality, and fairness have been mobilised, interpreted in different ways to justify their own rights and rightness before the civil judgements of other villagers and the verdicts of the juridical system. This case study directs the reader's attention to the different facets of societal transformation in the last three decades, which impact kinship arrangements, and accordingly caused immense individual anxiety. Brotherhood Considered -Responsibility and Tensions Concerning Elderly Support in North ChinaBy X i u j i e W u SummaryThe culture of the Han-Chinese designates brotherhood as a valuable form of alliance. Codes of behaviour towards one's brother(s) are ascribed in cultural norms. However, within the concept and practices of kinship, ambiguous borderlines of hierarchy and egalitarianism among brothers leave certain areas free for contesting individual interests. This article takes an extended case study of conflict between two brothers in their old age over their elderly support provisions to analyse how notions of brotherhood are re-shaped as Chinese peasants are confronted with serious social insecurity due to lower incomes and insufficient institutional arrangements for elderly support; how conventional concepts of hierarchy, equality, and fairness have been mobilised, interpreted in different ways to justify their own rights and rightness before the civil judgements of other villagers and the verdicts of the juridical system. This case study directs the reader's attention to the different facets of societal transformation in the last three decades, which impact kinship arrangements, and accordingly caused immense individual anxiety.

A study on Chinese bulletin board system forums: how Internet users contribute to set up the contemporary notions of family and marriage

“…The conflict between the traditional family code and the tendency towards individualization is mirrored by the reshaping of the notions of brotherhood as valuable forms of alliance, which is taking place in the daily life of contemporary China. In particular, the tensions among siblings concerning old parents' care should be analysed in the light of social insecurity due to the persistence of lower incomes, high internal mobility, and insufficient support by the state, as stressed by Wu (2010).…”