| Summary/Abstract |
As market reforms and socioeconomic development have transformed the Chinese economy, family life in rural and urban areas has also been directly and indirectly altered. Yet demographers who observe the rise of singlehood and sub-replacement fertility find confirmation of the universal application of theories in support of the Second Demographic Transition (SDT), while others find that high rates of marriage, near absence of births outside of marriage, and continuing centrality of inter-generational aid flows call for a more nuanced approach in China. In response to the still limited research on this rising diversity of contemporary family life in China, this special issue provides both theoretical insights and empirical evidence to examine how individualistic and familial values coexist, clash, and interact in different aspects of family life, and how gender relations and intergenerational politics have evolved at the same time.
|