The filial obligation in PRC and Taiwan

Reading on “Filial obligation in Chinese families” by Martin King Whyte

Filial piety was a central value of family life, and the centrality of family life in Confucian statecraft made filial piety a lynchpin for the entire social order. Ethnographic evidence from nineteenth- and early- twentieth century Chinese communities indicates that these filial obligations were widely honoured.

The write compared Taiwan and PRC, the two Chinese societies under different political system, to find out whether and how filial obligation has changed in twentieth century.

The conclusion was:

Overall there was little sign of any crisis or sharp erosion of filial sentiments in either setting. Both elder parents from either side expressed satisfaction with the support they were receiving from their grown children. At global level, the research data showed that filial support obligations have survived well despite the hectic pace of social changes in two Chinese societies.

The marked difference however also was observed. It seems that though economically more advanced, Taiwan has been more traditional in the filial support system, and PRC looks more modern.

That leads to define the notion of modernization. This is a global term that encompasses many aspects and changes- rising income per capita, expanding education attainment, industrialization, urbanization, secularization, and many more. A central component of modernization is the decline in the family as a production unit, and the rise of employment in nonkin-based bureaucratic firms and agencies. Modernization involves the decline in the family’s ability and or desire the command resources to supply its own needs and reduced salience of family property and inheritance as basis fro the social placement of children.

In Taiwan, these aspects of modernization have been held back by the continuing centrality of family run business and assets and the resulting reliance on family employment and resources. In China, in contrast, these aspects of modernization were substantially accelerated by the socialist transformation of the mid-1950s. The major change eliminated the family as production unit, made family property ownership and inheritance inconsequential, made social mobility dependent on education and bureaucratic allocation to jobs, provided secure wages and a range of fringe benefits for most urbanites and made public housing available at nominal cost.

As a result of all of these contrast, PRC families differed from their counterparts in Taiwan in many ways despite their common cultural roots.

In 1978, China lunched its market reform programs, the new state reform effort designed to eliminate the “iron bowl” of socialist job and benefits security was launched too. The dramatic reduction of urban fertility rates since 1970 and the imposition of one child policy after 1979 mean that most future elderly will have only one grown child available to provide support. Those institutions to provide secure support network are now being threatened or dismantled, with uncertain consequences for the filial support system as described.