ABSTRACT
Any treatise about China is bound to leave out a great deal. This chapter aims to cover a large territory in showing the context in which middle-class families live in contemporary China and describing enough of the history and culture to locate the modern Chinese family within the larger picture. It describes the intimacy of family and couple struggles as they navigate the complexities of modern life. The life of contemporary Chinese families takes place in a climate of continuing rapid change. Most of the elements of these changes are well-known: the emergence of the family from traditional patterns, and then from the strictures of early governmental domination of the family; and the period of Opening Up and entrepreneurial dominance.
