Great changes in contemporary Chinese families

Author: Ding Wen
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2001-11-01
Features: This book is part of the Jiangsu Provincial Philosophy and Social Sciences "Nineth Five-Year Plan" project and is one of the few specialized works in China that systematically studies the transformation of contemporary Chinese families. It employs the latest theories in family studies, based on extensive research and sufficient data, to conduct in-depth analyses and superficial descriptions of the significant changes in Chinese families since the reform and opening-up, as well as the various issues that have emerged. The book focuses on exploring a series of socially hot topics: what changes have occurred in contemporary Chinese families, why many puzzling family issues have emerged, where families are headed in the future, and what the future family will look like. The main ideas and viewpoints of this book are reflected in the article "The Great Transformation of Chinese Families in the 50 Years Since the Founding of the People's Republic of China." After its publication, the important journal Xinhua Zhai (Issue 2, 2000) immediately reprinted it, followed by various newspapers and magazines such as Journalist's Observation, China Population News, and Nanjing Daily or, generating a strong response in society. As a work that combines the latest family theories with real-life family life, this book has the following outstanding features: It is oriented toward the 21st century, closely aligned with the pulse of the times, and observes the changes in Chinese families from a broad perspective of the contemporary global wave of modernization and the worldwide transformation of families. It places Chinese families within the general sequence of human family development to study their changes, revealing the nature, characteristics, and trends of these transformations. It has both a strong sense of reality and timeliness and a strong scientific and theoretical depth, advancing the study of real-life families to a new level. It is oriented toward real-life situations, closely addressing socially hot topics that people are concerned about, and studies family transformation within the historical context of social transformation. It analyzes family changes based on social changes and, in turn, reveals the breadth and depth of social changes through family transformation. This not only holds significant guidance for solving people's practical life issues but also has important practical implications for China's modernization and spiritual civilization construction. It employs multidisciplinary comprehensive analysis and cross-cultural comparative methods, conducting comparative studies of the transformation of Chinese and Western families at various levels, revealing the uniqueness of Chinese family transformation compared to the West. In terms of writing style, it adopts a modern and innovative format, making theory accessible to real-life situations, blending stories with reasoning, and combining popular and classical elements, making it easy to understand and lively.