New Three-Generation Families in Rural China (中国农村新“三代家庭”研究)

Abstract

With the migration and urbanization of China’s rural population, married members of the Post-1980 and Post-1990 generation, together with their parents, have formed a new type of three-generation family which in some respects is similar to the earlier three-generation families but quite different in substance. In the new three-generation families, even though the offspring and the parents constitute separate accounting units, they have not undergone formal household division. The parents have come to be incorporated into their offspring’s families, forming a new three-generation family with each of their offspring. The structure of the new three-generation families allows the offspring to cope with the pressures from village competition, labor migration, and urbanization by fully using the resources and labor power of the parents, thereby driving the development of these new peasant families. Such families have in fact overemphasized instrumentalist rationality, resulting in the overuse and exploitation of middle-aged labor. The elderly who are unable to work are excluded from the household and their living space has been narrowed. The formation of these new families runs counter to the expectation that rural families will become entirely nuclear families after China’s industrialization, showing that rural family formation has a distinctive cultural basis.伴随着农村人口流动和农民城市化，婚后的“八零后”、“九零后”农民与父代组成了类似三代直系家庭但却有实质差别的新“三代家庭”。在该类家庭中，父代与子代、子代家庭之间的会计单位是相互独立的，但是子代与父代在形式上又没有明确分家，这就使得父代被分别纳入到子代家庭，成为子代家庭的成员，从而分别与子代家庭构成三代直系家庭。新“三代家庭”结构有利于子代对父代资源和劳动力的充分调配，以应对村庄竞争、人口流动和城市化所带来的问题和压力，推动农民家庭发展。新“三代家庭”过于强调家庭关系的工具理性，从而使得农村中年人的劳动力被过度使用和剥削。没有劳动能力的老年人不被纳入进新“三代家庭”，他们的生存空间被挤压。新“三代家庭”的出现有力地驳斥了中国工业化后农民家庭将彻底核心化的论断，说明农村家庭的延续和变化皆有其独特的文化基础。