社会转型过程中家庭的变迁与延续

Continuity or Change? Chinese Family in Transitional Era

家庭变迁是世界各国在工业化、城镇化和现代化过程中的必经现象。在过去30多年中,中国发生了翻天覆地的变化;人口、经济、政治、社会和文化要素共同作用于家庭结构、关系、功能和价值取向。家庭规模变小、代数变少,主要家庭模式趋于稳定,但家庭形式更为多样,家庭关系既亲密又疏离,部分家庭功能社会化,婚姻家庭观念发生改变。尽管如此,基于深厚传统的中国家庭仍有很强的抗逆力,加上结构性因素的制约,传统的家庭形式对亲代和子代仍具有较强的吸引力,生、养、教化功能仍多由家庭承担。不过,子女数量的持续偏少,子代社会和地域流动的久盛不衰,婚姻观念的不断变迁,都会进一步改变家庭的存在形式和功能,并给政府和家庭带来严峻挑战。

With industrialization, urbanization and modernization, the family institution has inevitably undergone changes. China has witnessed extraordinary social transformations over the past three decades. These forces have jointly brought about profound changes to the family organization. This paper traces the changing trend, patterns and characteristics in family strudure, explores the causes of such change, and analyzes its consequences to family relationships andfamily fundions in recent years in Chi- na. It has found that family size has shrunk, number of generations in the family is reduced, family forms become more diversified, and family relationship remain intimate but distanced. Also, many traditional family fundions have been taken over by public agencies, and family norms and culture have been re- shaped. While changesoccur in various ways and important challenges remain, the Chinese family has been so far resilient to societal transformation due to its deeply rooted tradition and current strudural con- straints. These have made intergenerational reciprocity attractive and prevented the Chinese family from decline. In the future, the government and the family have to face challenges brought about by demographic transition, persistently large-scale migration, and changing norms towards the family.