Chinese Family Transition：A Global Comparative Perspective

Understanding the family transition not only reveals the changes in marriage,fertility,and intergenerational relationships,but also sheds light on how social changes shape family attitudes and behaviors of individuals.Capitalizing on national representative time-series data,this study uses comparable instruments to investigate the pattern and future trend of family transitions in China from a global comparative perspective.Our results indicate the persistent core role of marriage in the Chinese family,with childbearing and marriage not being decoupled.Despite the strong child-centered tendency in contemporary China family,modernization and gender empowerment may substantially erode such a tradition,mainly manifested by the weakening protective role of children in parental marriage.Traditional filial piety ethics have been highly valued and practiced in today's China.However,a higher level of economic development and population aging will reshape the intergenerational dynamics in China.The global comparisons suggest the enduring power of culture in shaping family practice.The family transition in the Confucian cultural sphere displays a high degree of commonality.