In the past three decades Hong Kong’s family structure has changed as more and more families are being receptive toward different social values. Traditional family structure in Hong Kong is about getting married, having children, as well as being supportive of older generations. In the past, there was no divorce, involvement outside marital affairs, or involvement in homosexual relationships. However, with the change in social values, there has been openness for divorce, remarriage, pre-marital sex, childlessness, and the diminishing trend of the traditional gender role (Chow, Lum, NWS, and TYS).
In seeing such change, the typical extended family size has decreased; and there has been a growth in nuclear family structure consisting of : single-parent families, dual-earner families, childless families, stepparent families, as well as supporting older generations through outside living assistance. Studies have shown that families have become smaller reducing from 4.2 people per household in 1976 to 3 people per household (HK Census and Statistical Department, 2007) (Chow, Lum, NWS, and TYS). A study conducted by the University of Hong Kong established that people find the nuclear family structure ideal. 86% of people found it ideal to have a childless families, 69% agreed in the ideal couple and children structure. 33% of people also agreed traditional-three generation structure it involves being a married couple, that has children, and supports their parents (Chow, Lum, NWS, and TYS).
Culturally the norm of respect and honoring “face” is an important way of their social values. It is typical in Hong Kong’s culture to provide quality “face”, this is interpreted as “an intangible quality that reflects a person's reputation, dignity...
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... associates are often long and tedious as every detail is examined and analysed carefully. Foreigners should be aware that aggression and impatience is unacceptable in Hong Kong’s business culture and will cause you to lose “face”. In decision-making, group consensus is the norm but the head of the company will have the last say.
In the Asian culture it is customary to provide small gifts as an act of sincerity. Chinese give gifts to mark their respect or express friendship. Gifts may also symbolize hope for future collaboration or to show their appreciation for a favor given. Many gifts are given to celebrate Chinese New Year (“Santandertrade.com”). If a gift or item is presented or received, it must be done by extending both hands. For example: if you are providing your business card, it must be done with both hands with your information facing the recipient.
There appears to be widespread agreement that family and home life have been changing dramatically over the last 40 years or so. According to Talcott Parsons, the change in family structure is due to industrialization. The concept that had emerged is a new version of the domestic ideal that encapsulates changed expectations of family relations and housing conditions. The family life in the postwar period was highly affected. The concept of companionate marriage emerged in the post war era just to build a better life and build a future in which marriage would be the foundation of better life. Equality of sexes came into being after...
In her book, The House of Lim, author Margery Wolf observes the Lims, a large Chinese family living in a small village in Taiwan in the early 1960s (Wolf iv). She utilizes her book to portray the Lim family through multiple generations. She provides audiences with a firsthand account of the family life and structure within this specific region and offers information on various customs that the Lims and other families participate in. She particularly mentions and explains the marriage customs that are the norm within the society. Through Wolf’s ethnography it can be argued that parents should not dec5pide whom their children marry. This argument is obvious through the decline in marriage to simpua, or little girls taken in and raised as future daughter-in-laws, and the influence parents have over their children (Freedman xi).
“In the 1950’s, 86 percent of children lived in two-parent families, and 60 percent of children were born into homes with a male breadwinner and a female homemaker” (Conley 451). In contrast, “in 1986, fewer than 10 percent of U.S. families consisted of a male breadwinner, a female housewife, and their children, a figure that has since fallen to 6 percent” (Conley 455). Modern families come in all shapes and sizes. They no longer follow the strict nuclear family layout. There are many reasons why the nuclear family is no longer the most common family type. Some of these reasons include increased divorces, increased acceptance of different sexual orientations, increased amount of couples choosing not to get married/common-law marriages, increased amount of people choosing not to have children (rise of birth control methods), increased amount of families with both parents working/needing to work, etc. Personally, I do not believe the decrease in the nuclear family model is a bad thing. By definition a family is just a group of people who are related or married/in a relationship and it can still be a healthy and well-functioning unit no matter the size or combination of people it is made up
Friedman, Sara L. "Women, Marriage and the State in Contemporary China." Chinese Society: Change, Conflict, and Resistance. Ed. Elizabeth J. Perry and Mark Selden. London: Routledge, 2000. Print.
Since as early as the 7th century BC, gender inequality in China has been an on going problem from before the birth of a child until after its death. The "We want a boy" mentality still exists today in Chinese thinking when it comes to young couples planning to start a family. What's even worse is that it is reinforced by nonsensical family traditions in a nation where filial piety often dictates family decisions. Parents usually desired sons in order to make familial propagation, sec...
I will first begin by summarizing the plot of Family by Pa Chin and the plot of Some Prefer Nettles by Junichiro Tanizaki and summarizing the characters as I go along. I will then explain how the two authors constructed their characters on modernity and tradition and conclude this paper by explaining the themes of the novels and how I would compare the two novels.
Today marriage is defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as the relationship between a husband and a wife or a similar relationship between people of the same sex. For the purposes of this paper, it will focus on marriage between a man and a woman and how marriage is differently defined between the American and Chinese cultures. This paper will discuss the cultural differences found between the American and Chinese culture with emphasis on age and mate-selection. The cultural differences between American and Chinese culture related to marriage practices shows that Americans value individualism and Chinese historically value collectivism.
Over the past decades, the patterns of family structure have changed dramatically in the United States. The typical nuclear family, two married parents with children living together in one household, is no longer the structure of the majority of the families today. The percentage of single-parent families, step-families and adopted families has increased significantly over the years. The nuclear family is a thing of the past. Family situations have tremendous influence upon a child’s academic achievement, behavior and social growth.
Firstly, the relationship expectations in Chinese customs and traditions were strongly held onto. The daughters of the Chinese family were considered as a shame for the family. The sons of the family were given more honour than the daughters. In addition, some daughters were even discriminated. “If you want a place in this world ... do not be born as a girl child” (Choy 27). The girls from the Chinese family were considered useless. They were always looked down upon in a family; they felt as if the girls cannot provide a family with wealth. Chinese society is throwing away its little girls at an astounding rate. For every 100 girls registered at birth, there are 118 little boys in other words, nearly one seventh of Chinese girl babies are going missing (Baldwin 40). The parents from Chinese family had a preference for boys as they thought; boys could work and provide the family income. Due to Chinese culture preference to having boys, girls often did not have the right to live. In the Chinese ethnicity, the family always obeyed the elder’s decision. When the family was trying to adapt to the new country and they were tryin...
In the family aspect, female in the typical Chinese-lineage dominated society owned little freedom as well as the right of coming to grips of properties. All of the above happened, according to prof. Ma, owing to women were defined as not trust-worthy and considered as outsiders. With this being prevalent, female, no matter married or not, are expected to stay at home. They were responsible for all the housework and daily living needs foe the family. Thanks to the domination of patrilineal values, women`s social life was dominated as well as blocked. The gender role of male in the family are mainly the leader of the family and the sources of the family income. Thus, it can...
The role of the Chinese family in pre-modern China included thoughts centered on Confucian thought and methods. The Chinese family followed different methods of Confucian thought and the division of family responsibilities in China developed because of it. The original text of Confucius that dictated the roles of filial piety in China did not specify gender dichotomy but the implications led Chinese scholars to distinguish the position of men following filial values from women. Pre-Modern China had the dominative power of dozens of dynasties. Confucianism developed ideologically during the Spring and Autumn Period (722-476BC) as an intellectual movement. Although Confucianism’s beliefs stem from the thought of acceptance involving humanities right to learn and grown through personal understanding and knowledge of outside influences there is a division between the male and female tasks in filial piety. The woman’s place in pre-modern Chinese society always depended on the male figure in the household unless the woman held an elder position. In most cases, women under Confucian control had little direction in life that men did not manage. In this paper, I will discuss the relationship among self, community, society, and the state as well as the gender relations and definitions of public and private spaces between men and women in China.
Walker, A.H. 1985. "Racial differences in patterns of marriage and family maintenance, 1890-1980." Pp. 87-112 in Feminism, Children, and the New Families, ed. S.M. Dornbusch and M.H. Strober. New York: Guilford Press.
The family discussed in this paper is a traditional nuclear family. The family composition of this nuclear family unit consists of a mother (MD) age 28 and father (KD) age 26 in a monogamous marriage with four children (DD, MD, ED, and BD), whose ages are 7, 6, 5 and 18 months respectively, two dogs and a cat. The father and the mother are the children’s biological parents. Both father and mother act as the family’s head and decision makers.
"A family is a small social group of people related by ancestry or affection, who share common values and goals, who may live together in the same dwelling, and who may participate in the bearing and raising of children. They have a physical or emotional connection with each other that is ongoing" (Vissing, 2011) and is the foundation of all societies. They can be formed by a grouping of father-mother-children or even more complicated combination of relatives. In the primary stage of family life in the United States, everyone from every generation lived together in one house. Subsequently, the idea of traditional family evolved and a married couple with children is at present, often called the traditional family. There are many types of families; however, this paper will focus on the traditional family. It will describe how the functionalist perspective, conflict perspective, and the interactionism theory apply to the sociological institution known as a family. It will explain some of the similarities and differences between the sociological theories in regards to families and how they affect the family members.
The unit of a family is the most prominent essential for all of us. As social human beings, we seek social support in order to thrive, and that is where family comes into play. A family is where you receive love, support, encouragement, and many other social benefits. The total number of households in the United States increased from 63 million in 1970 to 113 million in 2008 (Weeks, 2012). The family has influenced multitudes of people in many ways. The traditional family in the United States consists two-married individuals providing care and stability for their biological offspring also know as the nuclear family. However, the term of a true family has ultimately changed over the last 50 years especially for African Americans.