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

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.

Migration and Health—Freedom of Movement and Social Benefits for Chinese Migrant Workers

“…The gender distribution is consistent with the overall trend of gender distribution among the rural-to-urban migrant workers. The traditional gender and family roles have resulted in most female farmers staying at home and taking on the homemaking and caregiving roles instead of out-migrating for jobs [40,41]. The average age was 52.8, with a standard deviation of 5.9.…”

How Does Family Intergenerational Relationships Affect the Life Satisfaction of Middle-Aged and Elderly Parents in Urban Only-Child Families in Chengdu, China

“…In urban China, the competitive pressures and living costs faced by Chinese urban families are much higher. In many families, downward intergenerational economic support continues to emerge, which is reflected in events such as marriage, house purchase, and entrepreneurship to minimize the survival pressure of adult children [ 60 ]. This large amount of intergenerational economic support may affect the quality of life of parents to a certain extent and even lead to intergenerational conflicts.…”

Overage labor, value perceptions, and happiness in urban older adults’ lives: Empirical evidence from China

“…On the one hand, under the strong influence of traditional Chinese culture, the goals of parents and children in Chinese families tend to be highly consistent, the financial behaviors of the whole family are a whole [ 49 ], Individual labor practices often include the demands of other family members [ 50 ]. Parents, in particular, are more likely to give a lot to their children's generation financially [ 51 ]. Research has shown that this inter familial financial support behavior is believed to have a positive impact on older adults' psychological health [ 52 ]; On the other hand, Chinese government and society have been encouraging and supporting individuals to actively participate in charity work, the income generated from overage work not only provides the material basis for the urban older adults to participate in social donation, but also enables them to obtain good self-recognition and respect from others through social donation, and maintain a higher social status and better social activity [ 47 ].…”