The social change accompanying the “Four modernization” calls for a reconsideration of analytical perspectives of the Chinese family. Given the present status of Chinese society, the hitherto common perspective of the new family in a socialist society has already lost its validity. Moreover, the historical materialisticfeminism approach which has attracted attention in recent years, poses problems with the historical actuality of the Chinese family.
In contrast to these perspectives, this paper focuses on the ambiguous complementarity of gender in family, and clarifies the basic conditions for achieving ambiguous complementarity in family life, by analyzing the existing state of Chinese society. As such, the purpose of this study is to look for an alternative way of family life in industrial society.
Through a case study of urban and rural families in Shanghai, it is made clear that to restore the independence of family activity and to diversify family functions are essential conditions. Furthermore, it is possible to show that the foundation of these conditions exist in the culture of the people's daily life, which is prone to oppose the domination of state, both in the urban and rural family.

View full abstract

This paper seeks to explore how Chinese couples' family-building behavior is influenced by socioeconomic, emographic, cultural, and policy factors, focusing on rural areas of Jilin Province. Specifically, we first look at socioeconomic conditions, dominant family values, and changes in the family planning program in Jilin. Next, we analyze changes in the level and the age/parity structure of fertility in rural Jilin during 1971-1985, utilizing the 1985 Survey on Rural Fertility and Living Standards. After examining changes in the rate of cceptance of a one-child certificate between 1982-1985, we then attempt to explain quantitatively what factors ropel or discourage rural Jilin couples in their acceptance of a certificate, by conducting logistic regression analysis.
Major findings of this paper are as follows: (1) Rural Jilin experienced a dramatic fertility decline following the implementation of the one-child family policy in 1979. (2) This decline was due primarily to curtailment of childbearing after first births by married women, especially those in their twenties. (3) Couples' acceptance of a one-child certificate was found to be influenced by the sex of child, women's ethnicity, women'sage and education, husband's educatdon, and such attitudinal factors as the ideal number of children and perception of one's own living standards.

View full abstract

In order to gain an understanding of the contemporary Asian family, it is necessary to establish some perspective of “development and family”. From our viewpoint, any structural family change will come from the alteration of family norms-aspects of which include family behavior, ideas, and consciousness. In rapidly changing societies, the gaps between these particular aspects are especially large. In conjunction with the Korean Women's Development Institute, we conducted interviews with 1608 male and female residents of Seoul concerning family consciousess.
In 1989, Korea drafted reforms in its family law, which took effect in 1991. The reforms were largely concerned with equal rights for men and women within the family, but touched only slightly on the traditional relationship between generations. Thus, in spite of recent efforts at feminist revision, the Koren family still retains in legal terms its Confucianist pattern.
However, our data on family consciousness show considerable changes regarding the meaning of having children and preference for boys amongst the different generations. On the other hand, even though 77% of the respondents live as a nuclear family, they still consider the family as large and extended. A longer, more thorough observation is needed to understand these gaps in perception.

View full abstract

This paper reviews the genesis and change of housewives in East Asian societies : Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, North Korea and China. To recognize the housewife as a historical product is to admit the possibility of its disappearance. Although East Asian societies have often been treated together as a Confucian cultural sphere, the present and future status of women in these societies are remarkbly different. In socialist societies virtually all women are supposed to work in the name of "women's liberation" but the status of women is not all the same. In North Korea patriarchal traditions are so well preserved that household chores are done solely by women, whereas in China men's participation in housework is quite prevalent. Patriarchy in Taiwan does not particularly emphasize motherhood as the most inportant female role and working outside the home is often considered one of women's responsibilities. Housewives in Taiwan, therefore, are most likely to follow the American type of the vanishing housewife. By contrast Korean housewives are still largely confined to their homes and transition to the next stage is quite unlikely because of strong Confucian influence just like in their Northern counterpart. In Japan, mothering still remains an essential role for married women and therefore prevent housewives from proceeding to the next stage although Japan is for more advanced than Taiwan in the economic sense.

View full abstract

The present paper reports about the two successive Japan-China conferences held recently in Beijing (1991) and Hangzhou (1992) under the sponsorship of the Japan Society for Promotion of Science, with the purpose of exchanging major research ideas, methods and findings in current family studies as well as promoting bi-lateral collaboration in the near future. The Japanese participants learned a great deal about the reality of the Chinese family and household through the conferences, and also from on-the-spot observations which follwed the intensive sessions of reports and discussions. At the same time, we felt frustrated by the ambiguity of the definition of key terms such as _?_, _?__?_, and _?_, used in Chinese reports. This paper examines some of these issues. Wider exchange and closer collaboration with Chinese scholars in the future will certainly improve and enrich our understanding of the marriage and family phenomena in China.

View full abstract

At the 25th seminar of family sociology last year, family lifestyles in post-modern society was proposed as a theme for one of the sessions. Of the questions asked from the floor, one concerned the term “post-modern society” and another the term “family lifestyles.”
Rather than discuss post-modern society itself, the intention was to discuss the nature of the post modern family. A new concept of “Family Lifestyle” is required in order to discuss the post modern family, because it is useful, even crucial, for understanding post modern families in that it allows us to treat the family as a lifestyle which is individually chosen.
Fortunately, three valuable reports were presented at that seminar on this theme, and are included in this joural on the following pages.

View full abstract

Lifestyle analysis is a theoretical and methodological approach for examining individual approaches to assembling one's own life, which uses as its unit of analyzing individual living persons (or living entites) who are “leading their daily lives while building up a life aimed at creating a personalized life based on their own individual interests as living entities”.
The objectives of introducing the lifestyle concept into family study include the following.
1. To clarify the significance of the existence of the family for individuals. That is, to elucidate the lifestyle of individuals in relation to the family.
2. To analyze family lifestyle in order to understand the individual features of building up a joint (cooperative) life in individual families.
3. To recognize the lifestyle of “living together”, such as in de facto marriage family and monosexual marriage family, as a characteristic feature of a new style of cohabitation beyond the conventional concept of family.
In any event, diversification of lifestyle may be regarded as the “tendency to prepare social conditions for individuals of various different lifestyles as society permits more freedom in the selection of cohabitation patterns by individuals according to their own taste”.

View full abstract

In recent years, an increasing number of people in Europe and the United States are choosing to live together, i.e. to cohabit, rather than legally get married, and are discoveing the advantages of this arrangement. Traditionally, cohabitaion was not a choice but a forced lifestyle for those who were not allowed a legal union.
This paper first cited some statistics, such as the increase in the number of divorces, the decrease in the number of marriages, the increase in the number of cohabitations, and the increase in the number of births out of wedlock, as a way to depict the current so-called “crisis in the marital system” in Western Societies.
Secondly, after analyzing the social background which has led to this increase in cohabitation, people living together are categorized into three groups : young people, women seeking independece, and people seeking an alternative to remarriage. Their process of choosing cohabitation as their lifestyle, from the point of view of strategy, is also explained.
Thirdly, the paper examines Swedish society where cohabitation is not only accepted as a socical institution but also legal. Through examining the Swedish example, social conditions which enable “neutrality” of lifestyle and a new paradigm for the family is investigated.
Finally, the possibilty of cohabitation being chosen as a lifestyle in Japan in examined.

View full abstract

Is the family becoming postmodern? In this paper, I focus on transformations in various family life event experiences (choices) such as marriage, divorce and childbirth. Transformation in the level of living or quality of life is a precondition for diversified family life event experiences. I propose a framework for analyzing family life event experiences in order to assess the coming of the postmodern family.
In the framework, the transformation of everyday life is divided into three dimensions. First, the height of hurdles for life event experiences. This refers to the cost of/or barriers to life event transitions. Second, changes in the level of living. Comparing, if changes were critical, to the level of living before and after life event experiences. Third, continuity of everyday life before and after life event expereinces. Discontinuity will make it difficult to transit life events.
The coming of the postmodern family will depend on the digree of the nature of the transtformation of everyday life in these three dimensions.

View full abstract

Sociological studies on the housewife developed first from the point of view of role theory, and then from historical perspective. In other words, this transition can be perceived as one from 'expressive leader'to 'domestic labour'. But these two approaches are surprisingly similar in that the activities of the housewife are structurally isolated from society, which, in turn, is derived from the structural isolation of family from society.Parsons is the most famous proponent of this argument, which Litwak has refused by clearly showing that family is connected with society in terms of domestic activities.
If the family is connected with society, then, the housewife should not be isolated from society either. We notice that we have only one category for analyzing the way towards society, i.e. occupation. We need another category which can analyze the connection between domestic activities and society, and the author believes that the concept of 'carer' as the role of housewife as suggested by G. Allan, is tenable. Housewives perform diverse activities at home. Child and elder care especially require housewives to relate with many different people and agencies. It should be clear, therefore, that housewives mediate between family and outside society.
Finally, the role of carer is compared to that of expressive leader and domestic labour.

View full abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relation between gender role and women's education in Korea.
The education of women in Korea was strongly influenced by Confucian norm until the 19th century. In the Lee dynasty (1392-1910), the sole purpose of education was to train women to be “wise mothers and good wives”.
Education at that time was conducted on a family basis by mothers. During the so-called “Enlightenment period (1876-1910) ” the first institution of education for women was established. Education of women was based on egalitarianism, and trained women to be “wise mothers and good wives” for the nation. Therefore, education for women emphasized the domestic role of women.
Since 1945, as a result of the Equal Education Opportunity Law, almost all women can receive school education. But school education is still conducted based on sexes, through textbook in the manifested curriculum and through the attitudes of teachers and school precepts in the hidden curriculum.
Therefore, school education today, through both the manifested and hidden curricula, strongly influences women to form a “traditional consciousness of different gender roles”.

View full abstract

This paper discusses and estimates the various factors on stress which have been used with family caregivers for the impaired elderly, and explores the factors influencing the stress of family caregivers, using the conceptual components of stress : “Stressor”, “Perception of caregivers”, “Resources” and “Stress response”.
The sample consists of 873 family caregivers for the impaired elderly living in Nagano prefecture, of which 712 (81.6%) were valid responses. A questionnaire was developed to investigate present stress symptoms of the caregivers. Principal component analysis, Cronbach's alpha, Multivariate analysis of variance and Multivariate analysis of convariance are used to look at the relationships between factors on the stress of caregivers.
The findings show that, the conceptional components, “Stress response” is related to the other components “Stressor”, “Perception of caregivers” and “Resources”. As for “ Stress response”, there were nine significant factors influencing the stress level of family caregivers. They are the elderly person's mental status, the quality of service, traditional caregiving ideology, the caregiver's health, the caregiver's job status, the emotional attachments in family relations, the emotional support from relatives, the emotional support from friends and neighbors, and instrumental support in the case of emergency from relatives.

View full abstract