Intergenerational Transmission of Family Property and Family Management in Urban China

2010 ◽  
Vol 204 ◽  
pp. 960-979 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danning Wang
Keyword(s):  
Rural China ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Urban China ◽  
Family Management ◽  
Housing Reform ◽  
Adult Sons ◽  
Family Culture ◽  
Senior Women ◽  
Family Division ◽  
Modernization Process

AbstractThis article applies Myron Cohen's studies of family division and family management in rural China to an examination of how working class families in urban China cope with the hardships created by industrial transition and housing reform. Senior parents work with their adult children; parental authority retains a critical role. By flexibly shifting powerful domestic roles, senior women, in particular, work with their adult sons in order to transmit the domestic resources necessary to secure the filial services to which they feel entitled. In China's fast-changing economic environment, fuelled by the modernization process, the dynamics of family culture still present effective tools and strategies for individual citizens seeking to protect and advance their own interests.

Family Management and Family Division in Contemporary Rural China

1992 ◽  
Vol 130 ◽  
pp. 357-377 ◽  
Author(s):  
Myron L. Cohen
Keyword(s):  
Family Life ◽  
Rural China ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Field Work ◽  
Family Management ◽  
West China ◽  
Family Organization ◽  
Chengdu Plain ◽  
Family Division ◽  
Economic Ties

Field-work in north, south and west China villages reveals that prior to the establishment of the People's Republic family organization at all three sites was characterized by the same customary arrangements concerning ownership of property, economic ties among family members, family management and family division. During the collective era and the present period of family fanning changes in these aspects of family life have been along similar lines. I was in a Hebei village for four months during 1986–87, and in 1990 carried out three-month periods of field-work in villages in Shanghai county and on the Chengdu Plain in Sichuan.

Who are the Asset-Poor in China: A Comprehensive Description and Policy Implications

2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 765-787
Author(s):  
YUANYUAN YANG ◽  
JUN-HONG CHEN ◽  
MINCHAO JIN
Keyword(s):  
Critical Role ◽  
Large Body ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Urban China ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Income Poverty ◽  
Chinese Government ◽  
Household Asset ◽  
Asset Poverty

AbstractThere is a large body of literature asserting that household asset holdings play a critical role in prospects of economic and social well-being. This study examines asset-poverty rates in China using the 2013 survey data from the Chinese Household Income Project (CHIP). The results indicate that asset-poverty rates in urban China were lower than those of developed countries, whereas rural and migrant households experienced more serious asset poverty than their counterparts in urban China. In addition, the asset-poverty rates were at least twice the income-poverty rates in China according to the different poverty lines used in the study. Several demographic characteristics were found associated with asset poverty. To assist the Chinese government in reaching its goal of eradicating absolute poverty by 2020 through targeted poverty alleviation, this study suggests including assets in the description and alleviation of poverty.

How Migrant Labor is Changing Rural China. By Rachel Murphy. [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. 306 pp. Hard cover $70.00, ISBN 0-521-80901-0; paperback $25.00, ISBN 0-521-00530-2.]

2003 ◽  
Vol 175 ◽  
pp. 846-847
Author(s):  
Li Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Structural Changes ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Rural China ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Labour Migration ◽  
Migrant Labor ◽  
Jiangxi Province ◽  
Structural Constraints ◽  
Reform Era ◽  
Economic Changes

Mass rural–urban labour migration in post-Mao China has received a great deal of attention by scholars of different disciplines. The existing research has largely focused on the causes and processes of migration; the politics of migrant identities and settlements in the cities; changing modes of governance in managing the migrant population; the questions of urban citizenship; and the cultural experiences of migrant wage workers in the reform era. Yet, we know very little about the profound social, economic and cultural impact of migrant labour on Chinese rural life and society. Rachel Murphy's book provides a timely contribution to our understanding of what has happened in rural China as a result of this unprecedented labour migration. Based on extensive, in-depth fieldwork in three counties in Jiangxi province, this is an extraordinarily insightful and fresh account of the everyday socio-economic changes brought by migration in the origin areas. Moving away from the static analysis of migration by modernization and structuralist theories, Murphy emphasizes the critical role of human agency by treating rural migrants as social agents who actively pursue their goals and utilize resources while making sense of the rapidly changing social world in which they live. Her study convincingly shows that migrants are neither passive victims of structural changes nor actors completely free of structural constraints; rather they constantly adopt strategies to negotiate with and alter the larger social, economic and political environment.

Variations in the adoption and use of mobile social apps in everyday lives in urban and rural China

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 318-341 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pu Yan ◽  
Ralph Schroeder
Keyword(s):  
Social Stratification ◽  
Information Seeking ◽  
Rural China ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Urban China ◽  
Central China ◽  
Communication Tool ◽  
Rural And Urban ◽  
Digital Gap ◽  
Everyday Problem

China has in recent years seen the rapid adoption of multifunctional social networking applications such as WeChat. This paper aims to explore if China’s social stratification has influenced the adoption and use of mobile social apps and if social apps such as WeChat can help to bridge the digital divide by providing urban and rural users equal access to diverse information and communication resources. The study is based on 4 months of fieldwork in the Henan Province of central China and combines quantitative data from surveys and qualitative data from semistructured interviews and focus groups. We found that there still exists a digital gap in the adoption and use of mobile social apps such as WeChat between rural and urban China, but such differences are also associated with demographic variables such as age, gender, and education level. Meanwhile, we found that WeChat has become more than a communication tool; it has also played an essential role in everyday problem-solving and information seeking for both rural and urban users. Our qualitative interviews and focus group studies reveal how WeChat influences various aspects of daily life in developing areas in China. We argue that although some divides in information seeking are being overcome, other new divides are emerging.

Women and Self-employment in Post-socialist Rural China: Side Job, Individual Career or Family Venture

2015 ◽  
Vol 221 ◽  
pp. 229-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jing Song
Keyword(s):  
Private Sector ◽  
Rural China ◽  
Urban China ◽  
Younger Women ◽  
Self Employment ◽  
Good Mother ◽  
Wage Employment ◽  
Rural Industries ◽  
Capital Intensive ◽  
Depth Interviews

AbstractThe rise of private sector business in urban China has led to more women engaging in low-end self-employment. This study, however, reveals a more complicated story in the countryside. Drawing on in-depth interviews conducted in a Chinese village, this study finds that the women took the lead in developing sideline self-employment and were then attracted to rural wage employment in the 1980s. With the privatization of rural industries and the rise of capital-intensive self-employment in the 1990s, some women were forced into low-end self-employment, but others were attracted to high-end self-employment, forging individual careers and family ventures. In more recent times, younger women have been more inclined to work on-and-off, balancing self-employment pursuits with the desire to be a good mother. This pattern marks a shift from the continuous multitasking practised by the older generation.

A Room of One's Own: Housing Consumption and Residential Crowding in Transitional Urban China

2003 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 591-614 ◽  
Author(s):  
Youqin Huang
Keyword(s):  
Household Income ◽  
Housing Markets ◽  
Urban China ◽  
Housing Tenure ◽  
City Size ◽  
Housing Consumption ◽  
Housing Reform ◽  
Institutional Variables ◽  
Room Of One's Own ◽  
Socio Economic Factors

The goal of this paper is to evaluate the level and examine the dynamics of housing consumption and residential crowding in urban China almost a decade after the housing reform was launched. I argue that housing consumption and residential crowding are affected not only by demographic and socio-economic factors, as they are in market economies, but also by institutional factors that are unique to China because of the dualism in housing reform. Using a 1996 national survey, I find that the level of housing consumption is still low and residential crowding is common. A room of one's own continues to be a dream for most Chinese. However, Chinese households now have more control over their housing, and their housing behaviors are beginning to share similarities with the West. For example, life cycle, household income, housing tenure, and city size have similar effects on housing consumption and residential crowding as they do in Western housing markets. It is still clear, however, that the socialist institution—the hukou system—continues to influence housing consumption, although to a lesser extent than in the prereform period. Households with rural or temporary hukou are at a disadvantage in the housing market, in the sense that they occupy less spacious housing and suffer more from residential crowding than do those with urban and permanent hukou. Yet, these last are more constrained by institutional variables such as job and work-unit characteristics, which affect housing consumption differently across cities.

scholarly journals Approaching Neighborhood Democracy from a Longitudinal Perspective: An Eighteen-Year Case Study of a Homeowner Association in Beijing

2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Lo
Keyword(s):  
Crucial Role ◽  
Urban China ◽  
Occupancy Rate ◽  
Social Conflicts ◽  
Housing Reform ◽  
Built Form ◽  
The Social

Neighborhood democracy was introduced into urban China in the early 1990s as a way to manage the social conflicts associated with the housing reform. Based on a case study of Dragon Villas, Beijing, this paper explores the causes, processes, and consequences of neighborhood democracy at the microlevel from a longitudinal perspective. Three insights are particularly noteworthy. First, the decrease in rental revenue and occupancy rate and the arrival of Chinese owner-occupiers contributed to the emergence of neighborhood democracy in Dragon Villas. Second, the establishment of a homeowner association, far from ending in the conclusion of neighborhood democratization, was only a first step. Furthermore, conflicts between the developer and the homeowners, and among homeowners, played a crucial role in lengthening the process of neighborhood democratization. Third, democratic self-governance resulted in improved governance, a more diverse built form that articulates individuation through consumption, and changes that reflect the importance of privacy and exclusivity.

Consequences of post-disaster policies and relocation approaches: two communities from rural China

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yong Chen ◽  
Lulu He ◽  
Dan Zhou
Keyword(s):  
Rural Areas ◽  
Disaster Recovery ◽  
Rural China ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Displaced People ◽  
Questionnaire Surveys ◽  
Post Disaster

PurposePost-disaster population resettlement is a complicated process, during which the restoration of livelihood and lifestyle plays a critical role in achieving a successful resettlement outcome. This paper attempts to examine how recovery policies and relocation approaches influence people's livelihood recovery and perception of wellbeing. It specifically investigates the role of farmland in producing a livelihood and maintaining a rural lifestyle among displaced people.Design/methodology/approachThrough face-to-face questionnaire surveys and in-depth interviews with rural residents displaced from their villages after the Wenchuan earthquake in Sichuan, China, this study presents both quantitative and qualitative evidence to investigate how post-disaster policies and particularly the availability of farmland influence people's recovery and their satisfaction with the post-resettlement life.FindingsData suggest that availability of farmland, in spite of the size, makes big differences in post-disaster recovery because farmland provides resettled people with not only a livelihood to secure basic living but also a guarantee to maintain a rural lifestyle.Research limitations/implicationsMore samples are needed for analyzing factors that significantly influence disaster-displaced farmers' recovery and wellbeing post resettlement.Practical implicationsThis study can be used as an important reference for making plans for post-disaster recovery and population resettlement programs in other disaster-prone countries across the world.Originality/valueLand-based relocation is proposed as a desirable approach to addressing challenges of livelihood restoration amongst the resettled population in rural areas of developing countries.

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