Abstract: Studies on Chinese family care for aging parents often overlook the discrepancy in resource allocation among intergenerational chains.This paper uses a three-generation-chain framework to study the resource allocation for elderly care in rural China and proposes a new categorization according to the generation priority. Under this framework,the first two priority groups are offspring and parents,followed by four sub-groups. By analyzing the data of CHARLS, the authors argue that a person's modern outlook affects the way of intergenerational family resource allocation. People with more modern outlook are more likely to provide resources to his/her parents or offspring. When modern outlook aligned with higher income,people tend to make their offspring the first priority. Thus,we conclude that it may not be the case of ethical lapse as some studies suggested. With the parents are still the first priority in intergenerational family recourse allocation,the offspring priority may well be just an “ethical change”,not “ethical lapse”.

Key words: ethical lapse, crisis of filial piety, ethical change, family resource, intergenerational chain