"Living independently is good": residence patterns in rural north China reconsidered

Abstract

Filialpiety provides an important ideological basis for family-based support in China. Evidence indicates that in recent years the support of the aged within the Chinese extended family has decreased. This article examines filial piety, residence, and support arrangements in three rural Chinese villages. Anthropologists independently conducted research in these villages in the 1990s: Hong Zhang in Zhongshan Village in Hubei Province, Yunxiang Yan in Xiajia Village in Heilongliang Province, and myself in Lijia Village in Shandong Province. This article examines the strategies used by the young and old in negotiating intergenerational support and residential arrangements within the context of local village circumstances and policies. In each village, the aged are increasingly likely to live apart from children, and to express a preference for living independently. Although these facts appear to contradict filialpiety, filialpiety continues to be valued. Filial respect of elders, however, is seen less as an inherent right and more as a reciprocal relationship that can be built, maintained, and lost. Housing policies and the economic status of the aged both appear to play an important role in explaining the common trends in these villages as well as explaining the differences between them. To varying degrees in each village, power has shifted to the younger generation.