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From the Revolutionary Family to the Materialistic Family: Keywords for a Contemporary Social History of China

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  • Dongchao Min

    (Dongchao Min is at the Department of Cultural Studies, School of Literature, Shanghai University, Shanghai, China. E-mail: minal1994@yahoo.co.uk)

Abstract

This article uses the method of focusing on certain critical keywords and ideas that achieved dominance in Chinese daily life after 1949 in order to track significant changes in conceptions of Chinese marriage and family. I hold that the model for Chinese marriage and family in the last 60 years has been shifting from kinship-dependent relations to a materialist orientation. This era is divided into two periods: the first stage begins from 1949, the year when the new China was born, and concludes in 1976, when the Cultural Revolution came to an end; and the second stage begins from the 1980s, when China embarked on a new open policy towards the outside world, and continues into the present. During the first stage, kinship-dependent relations were destroyed by a series of political movements and came to be replaced by a certain model of revolutionary relationships. Over the course of the second stage, ‘a materialistic orientation’ has come to characterise familial relations, and finds further reinforcement from the wider society and economy.

Suggested Citation

  • Dongchao Min, 2013. "From the Revolutionary Family to the Materialistic Family: Keywords for a Contemporary Social History of China," Indian Journal of Gender Studies, Centre for Women's Development Studies, vol. 20(3), pages 393-413, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:indgen:v:20:y:2013:i:3:p:393-413
    DOI: 10.1177/0971521513495290
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