The Family Essay, Research Paper

The Chinese Family

For the last two decades, Chinese families have gone through a lot of changes. Much of the old structure and many of the old values of the traditional family have been replaced with a modern twist.

The stereotyped view of the Chinese family was that of a large family, with several generations and immediate families all living together, being self sufficient, providing child and elderly care. Some of this is no longer true for the modern Chinese family that mainly has a structure of a husband and a wife living with their children, and sometimes with their parents. Only a small number of Chinese families may have relatives living nearby. Because of that the Chinese family no longer performs the function of providing help with child and elderly care. However, we continue to emphasize the values of family and to maintain close family links. There is a strong bond between parents, children, and the other family members. In the Chinese culture, the family is most important. Men continue to have the dominant position in the family with decision making. Today, Chinese women are acquiring equality with men, by contributing to income or labor in the family business. Chinese families still feel that women’s roles are primarily for the raising of children and the running of the home. The roles of the mother and the father are still a bit looked at like segregated. The Chinese saying “The man is responsible for the external and the woman is responsible for the internal” is still true in many Chinese families. It means that the man’s job is to work, earning money for the family, while the woman’s job is to take care of the household that the man can enjoy a comfortable and trouble-free family life. Even though today, Chinese women work outside the house, they are still the main people responsible for the care and upbringing of children. But, before Chinese culture became modernized, the women did not work unless necessary. Chinese couples have adopted the Western model of family roles and accepted that the idea that the father should share the responsibilities of child care. It is no longer uncommon to see Chinese fathers taking care of their kids in public.

Today, Chinese boys and girls are treated quite fairly, due to the gender changing in China and the mind opening of the people. But they are treated differently in that girls are more protected of than boys. For instance, boys are allowed to go out later than girls. Girls do not get to do many of the things that boys do. Chinese parents in general are concerned about the discipline of their children with an emphasis on proper and appropriate behavior. Chinese parents are known to be overly strict. Their roles in their children’s discipline is best described by ” A kind mother and a strict father.”, which has traditionally been regarded as the Chinese archetypal parents to create an ideal environment for disciplining children. Chinese mother are usually more easier to socialize with. They teach children how to behave and help them learn what is right or wrong. The methods used are persuasions and withdrawal of affection. The more severe disciplinary problems are often assigned to the father. Chinese fathers are seen by their