The Chinese Family: An Arena of Conflicting Cultures

O F THE phenomena of conflict and accommodation there is probably no more fertile field for study today than China; and of the changes occurring there none is more profound or more far-reaching than the revolution in the structure and psychology of the family. The most obvious characteristic of the ancient Chinese family is its size. A family of thirty persons would be not considered a really large sized family.' In old times and even now in conservative well-to-do groups or in isolated rural districts, fainilies of fifty, eighty, or a hundred and eighty members could be found. The typical Chinese family includes all the descendants, except married daughters and grand-daughters, of either living parent, plus the wives and concubines of their sons, their slave girls, adopted children, etc. Not until both parents are dead do the grown-up sons ds~sume control of their own families as separate social units. Even when both parents die the sons often keep on living in the ancestral home, using the ancestral temple and burying ground, and entrusting their family and business affairs to the management of the oldest brother or uncle. So it usually happens that there are three or more generations and at least some members of several family branches all living together behind one gateway. More distantly related branches will often have their gateways one after the other opening into the long street of the clan, or great-family, village. It is diflicult for a Westerner to understand the nature of the old-time Chinese family. We have no word that exactly translates their chia, just as they have no word that has much of the connotation of our word home. Considered from the standpoint of the large number of members and the variety of activities, the Chinese family might be described as a community. If the importance of status is regardedthe subordination of women to men, of younger members to elders, of concubines to wives, and all wives and concubines to the eldest married woman, and the virtual subjection of the whole group to the head, the chia-ching,-or if we look at the formality of family life, its elaborate etiquette and ceremnony, its potential intrigue and training in diplomacy, it seems more like the household of a king's court than the homey thing we call our family. In its economic aspect it is comparable to a joint-stock company, in which every memiber of the family is a share-holder. It is a form of communistic co-operation under strict authority, the authority of the business-manager. In this family commune all must help to produce who are able, each is entitled to a share of the product, and no one may have more than his share or more than enough for his current needs. To hoard up things for oneself is forbidden as a form of thieving. The durable property belongs to the group as a whole, and the earnings of each member are part of the incotne of the whole. From whatever standpoint it is examined the Chinese family is seen to be a thing of extraordinary solidarity, of widest possible scope of functions, and concentration within itself of practically all ethical and 1 Pingsa Hu, The Changing Chinese Woman (Peking,