Inner Experience of the Chinese People by Xiaohong Zhou

Author:Xiaohong Zhou
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer Singapore, Singapore

© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. and Social Sciences Academic Press 2017

Xiaohong Zhou (ed.)Inner Experience of the Chinese PeopleResearch Series on the Chinese Dream and China’s Development Pathhttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-4986-6_9

9. Intergenerational Relations

Hui Shen1

(1)Department of Social Work and Policy, Nanjing University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China

Intergenerational relations have been the cause for some important changes in social structure (Wu 2008: 254) and did not receive much attention prior to the emergence of the industrial society. With the onset of industrialization (or modernization) on a global scale, new technology has transformed human societies rapidly and provided the younger generation with more advanced methods of production which freed them from the control of the older generation, and therein lies the problem of intergenerational relations1 (Zhou 2008).

Intergenerational relations carry the unmistakable imprint of social changes which include the change in values and systems brought about by social and cultural transformation. They have an inherent consistency, but fracture and reconstitution can also occur due to the change in systems or social structure. If we view the three occasions of social transformation2 in Chinese modern history as triggers for the changes in intergenerational relations, then the third social transformation, that is to say the reform and opening up in 1978, corresponds to the latest occasion for the changes in intergenerational relations. Our discussion below centers on the thirty years since 1978 while referencing the situation before 1978, including the traditional society. These are the questions we will try to answer: How did reform and opening up change intergenerational relations? How do changes in social structure and values influence intergenerational relations? On the micro level, how does the behavior of the older and younger generations affect intergenerational relations and what changes and conflicts emerge as a result? How can the phenomenon where younger generations help older ones keep up with and adapt to cultural changes help ease intergenerational tension and opposition? Finally, what other changes will come to intergenerational relations?

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