Remaking Families in Contemporary China

The book examines a number of emerging practices engaged in family relations in contemporary China, and in doing so it draws attention to new patterns of behaviour and expectations. The book not only makes a significant contribution to the under-researched area of transformation of the family since the advent of marketization, it also shows why exploration of family-related themes is important in understanding the nature of society, the forces that underpin social relationships more broadly, and also the basis and nature of social change. This book fills a gap in the literature by examining such topics as the erstwhile unrecognized practices related to providing a child with a surname. It also examines the previously unrecognized migratory movement of rural and small-town grandparents, joining their adult children who have relocated to undertake urban employment, in order to provide childcare so that both of the child's parents can earn an income - thus participating in the massive 'floating' populationthat characterizes China's workforce today. In addition to these topics, three other aspects of family life that are under-explored in the literature are examined, namely spousal intimacy, divorce, and remarriage and co-habitation in later life. In all of these cases empirical material is refracted through new insights and theoretical developments. Research for this book is based on semi-structured in-depth interviews with 178 men and women. The interviews were conducted between 2015 and 2017 in Beijing,Changshu, Dongguan, Guangzhou, Hefei, Shanghai, and Shenzhen, and Hong Kong--