How have the momentous policy shifts that followed the death of Mao Zedong changed families in China? What are the effects of the decollectivization of agriculture, the encouragement of limited private enterprise, and the world's strictest birth-control policy? Eleven sociologists and anthropologists explore these and other questions in this path-breaking volume. The essays concern both urban and rural communities and range from intellectual to working-class families. They show that there is no single trend in Chinese family organization today, but rather a mosaic of forms and strategies that must be seen in the light of particular local conditions.
Deborah Davis is Professor and Chair of the Department of Sociology at Yale University. Stevan Harrell is Professor of Anthropology and director of the Arts and Sciences Honors Program at the University of Washington.
400 pp.
9780520082229$39.95|£34.00Paper
Oct 1993