ABSTRACT
In the study of human relations, the mother-son bond is especially intriguing in the Chinese context for both its rich complexity and its ambivalence. Women and children were relatively powerless in the Chinese household, but the nurturing mother commanded resources enough for her children and brought family members together in the process. Two main factors are fundamental to our understanding of the mother-son relation: the death of the mother and the marriage of the son. Both are fundamental passages of life that produce obvious effects on family structure and familial relations. Traditional Chinese culture contains a deep vein of filial piety (hsiao), a complex of rites and relations that calls for a lifelong indebtedness on the part of the children (primarily the sons) to their parents and ancestors. Sociologists, anthropologists, demographers, and historians have long thought that mothers went about the task of reproduction due to not simply their biological inclinations, but also out of self-preservation.
