ABSTRACT
Looking at the past five decades, some observers argued that the family was collapsing under the pressure of the wealth pursuit. Has that happened? The search for clues in all the ten Asian countries studied in this book (China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam) suggest that the answer would be ‘Yes’ if we simply look into divorce trends and note that the wealthiest country, Japan, has the highest rate. On the other hand, the answer would be ‘No’ if we consider carefully other aspects of family life such as marriage, parenthood and the kinship bond shown by the presence of grandparents. Marriage is a very important aspect in the lives of most people in these countries and they believe parenthood is a crucial event in one’s life and want to give the best to their children; but what is changing radically is the perception of marriage, the perception of the ideal number of children and the inclination of women to expand their horizons by getting more education,
becoming income-earners holding paid jobs or pursuing a career. The data collected suggest trends in those directions. Younger generations of married people prefer partnership in marriage and one or, at the most, two children. Threegeneration homes and the close interaction with grandparents are common features in these countries as is the trend towards healthier, economically active and better educated seniors. Women are spending longer years in the labour force.
