Public Policy and the Changing Chinese Family in Contemporary China: The Past and Present as Prologue for the Future

Over the last several decades, China has emerged as one of the premier economic powers in the global environment due, in part, to several government-instituted policies that were aimed to break ties with the past and pave the way for China’s future. These policies also had a significant impact on the Chinese family, moving it away from the Confucian traditions of the past where the family was considered an autonomous unit that provided the basic structure of Chinese social, economic, and political life. As the Chinese government implemented various policies—most notably the Cultural Revolution, the Open-Door policy, and the One-Child Policy (OCP)—the Chinese family not only became much less autonomous but also was subjected to changing familial and social norms. In this article, the authors describe the impact these and other policies had on the Chinese family and the questions that arise from these changes concerning the three generations that have been most directly affected by these policies.