This book provides two kinds of connections and one possible elaboration concerning Chinese families. On the one hand, it explores the connection between the special features of Chinese families and the existing theories mostly based on observations of Western societies, as well as the connection between two Chinese societies across the Taiwan Strait. On the other hand, it investigates whether the special features in Chinese families can broaden the scope of family analysis in general. This book consists of ten subjects, including co‐residence, marriage, fertility, education, mobility, gender ... More

This book provides two kinds of connections and one possible elaboration concerning Chinese families. On the one hand, it explores the connection between the special features of Chinese families and the existing theories mostly based on observations of Western societies, as well as the connection between two Chinese societies across the Taiwan Strait. On the other hand, it investigates whether the special features in Chinese families can broaden the scope of family analysis in general. This book consists of ten subjects, including co‐residence, marriage, fertility, education, mobility, gender preferences, family supports, filial feedbacks, housework allocation, and the dynamics of family norm changes. Most of the analyses in this book are theory‐based empirical studies. The empirical analyses are based upon data collected from a unique panel survey conducted in various areas across the Taiwan Strait, namely Taiwan and Southeast China. These places are chosen to be the two focal areas of study because they are geographically close, ethnically homogeneous, and all open to the modern market economy. A comprehensive analysis of these two areas gives us new insights concerning how Chinese families are similar/different in various dimensions, to what extent they are distinct from the Western ones, and how these similarities/differences were formed.