Abstract: Intergenerational coresidence of parents and married children is one of the most distinctive characteristics of traditional Chinese families. Whether this traditional living arrangement will change in the process of modernization has stimulated widespread interest of the academia. According to the classic modernization theory, modernization will push family taking up the modern family mode of the nuclear structure. However, many studies have found that, even in the most modernized urban areas in China, extended families still account for a large proportion, which significantly challenges the classic modernization theory. The existing literature suggests that the particular Chinese Confucian culture and the urgent needs of the support to elderly parents are the two primary reasons for the prevalence of extended families in urban China. Based on the data of the first wave of Chinese Family Panel Study in 2010, this paper finds that in addition to parents’ needs for eldercare, children’s needs are particularly important for coresidence. Young couples need to rely on their parents for monetary support, especially for housing; additionally, they need their parents to help with housework and childcare. This paper also finds that education expansion and population migration have undermined the foundation of Chinese extended family system. However, because of the strong needs from both parents and children, extended family still plays an irreplaceable role in contemporary urban China. Therefore, it is necessary for the extended family to survive in the near future.

Key words: traditional culture,  coresidence , children’s needs ,  modernization , state policies