Chinese Families in the Post-Mao Era

How have the momentous policy shifts that followed the death of Mao Zedong changed families in China? What are the effects of the decollectivization of agriculture, the encouragement of limited private enterprise, and the world's strictest birth-control policy? Eleven sociologists and anthropologists explore these and other questions in this path-breaking volume. The essays concern both urban and rural communities and range from intellectual to working-class families. They show that there is no single trend in Chinese family organization today, but rather a mosaic of forms and strategies that must be seen in the light of particular local conditions. Content: Introduction: The Impact of Post-Mao Reforms on Family Life, Deborah Davis and Stevan Harrell Urban Families in the Eighties: An Analysis of Chinese Surveys, Jonathan Unger Urban Households: Supplicants to a Socialist State, Deborah Davis Geography, Demography, and Family Composition in Three Southwestern Villages, Stevan Harrell Family Strategies and EconomicTransformation in Rural China: Some Evidence from the Pearl River Delta, Graham E. Johnson Family Strategies and Structures in Rural North China, Mark Selden Reconstituting Dowry and Brideprice in South China, Helen F. Siu Wedding Behavior and Family Strategies in Chengdu, Martin King Whyte The Peasantization of the One-Child Policy in Shaanxi, Susan Greenhalgh Cultural Support for Birth Limitation among Urban Capital-owning Women, Hill Gates Strategies Used by Chinese Families Coping with Schizophrenia, Michael R. Phillips Settling Accounts: The Intergenerational Contract in an Age of Reform, Charlotte Ikels