Chinese Journal of Sociology ›› 2017, Vol. 37 ›› Issue (5): 165-192.

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How Chinese Rural Family Changes:Nucleating or Individualizing? An Analysis Based on Moral Evaluation of Private Savings

XING Chaoguo   

  1. Department of Sociology, University of Science and Technology Beijing;Center for Studies of Sociological Theory & Method of Renmin University
  • Online:2017-09-20 Published:2017-09-20
  • Supported by:

    The research was supported by Major Project of MOE Key Research Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences (16JJD840014) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (FRF-BR-16-006B).

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Abstract:

Ifamily is a new paradigm for explaining Chinese family changes, which is obviously different from "Familism".In such background, the paper tries to discuss the direction of Chinese rural family's change from family economy life, and namely how peasants evaluate private savings. The paper assumes that peasants evaluate private savings either from individual perspective or from family perspective. Based on field work conducted in a village by the North shore of the Yangtze River within the territory of Anhui Province, the results show that private savings' source, amount and use are factors which affect peasants' judgment. In addition, the state of family financial control and intimate relationship also affect their appraisement. Specifically, money obtained by luck and money saved in daily life is more likely to be accepted. Small amount private savings is more likely to be accepted. Private savings for subsistence and emergency is more likely to acquire good appraise than private savings for luxurious. Private savings used inside family and for family are more likely to be accepted than private savings used outside family and for personal affairs. People are more likely to accept private savings hided by people who are financially controlled or in bad intimate relationship. These factors are included in binary framework "individual vs. family", and nuclear family's property safety and livelihood safety are the core evaluation criterions for judging private savings.Therefore, the paper holds that the change of Chinese rural family is still nucleating not individualizing.

Key words: individualizing, private savings, moral evaluation, nucleating, Chinese rural family