ABSTRACT
The family/household is where individual choices, state policy decisions, and intangible demographic and economic changes are closely intertwined (Quah 2009). Through a close examination of the childcare labor arrangements within rural households in inland China and their transformation over time, this study aims to reveal how, throughout China’s more than 60-year history of pursuing modernity, local social and cultural norms relating to childcare labor distribution are shaped by, and in turn affect, the macro social/structural forces of which state policies and demographic, socio-economic changes constitute the main elements.
