Family Structure In China

Family Structure and Consequences

The principles of Confucianism largely guided family structure and gave the viewpoint that family was a building block for society. Confucianism put much emphasis on filial piety, which was believed to preserve harmony and keep families together. And in the concept of filial piety is worship of ancestors, which is a central tradition for the Chinese family. For thousands of years, traditional Chinese family structure was strictly patriarchal, which women had to obey their husbands and grown sons.

Gender Roles in Family

Men

Man is responsible for maintaining, providing for and protecting his family. He is given all the decision-making power when it comes to his wife, family and other family members

the man is responsible for taking care of and paying for his children, including their education.

Women

Women had little power in the family system, and the male of the family held absolute authority and power. It was not acceptable for a woman to have her own ambitions and that she should have barely any life outside her own home children live with their parents until they were married. Also, while men were allowed to have "concubines", women were not allowed to remarry. In fact, there is a famous saying, "A husband can marry twice, but his wife must never remarry."

One Child Policy

In order to combat overcrowding and overpopulation, the People's Republic of China mandated a one-child-per-household policy in the late 1970s. This law often only applied to urban families, while some rural families could get away with having more than one child. This policy influenced how children were looked at. Due to the policy, infanticide occurred in China as many baby girls were killed due to the old Chinese mindset that a male is better than a female and can carry the family lineage. Also due to the policy, many families prefer male babies to female babies.

-5bonacci ✋

 Chan Ling Han, Moo Jia Rong, Seow Jia Xuan, Zheng Boya, Malvin

 2E'2014