For millennia, Confucius’ values have defined the family as necessary for social class and harmony, with family relationships playing a central role in addressing challenges such as competition for land and resources. Sons manage farms and businesses and Care for older parents. Daughters extended the family through marriage, creating large extensive networks that made critical economic and social functionsLike school building and dispute resolution – functions in Europe may have been carried out by the church.
This basic economic and social structure even survived the outbursts of the 1950s-70s, when the new Communist regime encouraged people to live in dorms (away from their families, including their spouses) and send their children to state nurseries and boarding homes. Today, however, the Chinese family is in crisis because of crash Fertility rates, which were reduced by 7.51 children per woman in 1963 (her modern peak) to a single woman in 2023. This demographic collapse endangers the economy, society and the state of China.
The roots of China’s fertility struggles are deep. China’s population was more than doubled between 1900 and 1979, by 400 million to 969 million. Food deficiencies were so common during this period that China became known as “hunger. “Between 1959 and 1961, China endured worse famine In recorded history, with 20-45 million people who die as a result of both the high density of the population and the deeply wrong government policies. So, starting in the 1970s, the Chinese government introduced strictly Laws on family design This, for decades, confined Most Chinese households in a child.
But the laws on family design are only part of the story. Although China’s policy was now read a child, it was relaxed in 2016, in two children, and then in 2021 with three, fertility rates have not increased.
And unlike other countries struggling with low fertility rates, such as Japan and South Korea, China is still a bad country. According to the latest data (from 2022) is China’s median median 6.224 $ ($ 17 per day) for the 944 million people living in urban areas, and simply 2.777 $ ($ 7.6 per day) for 465 million in rural areas. In the United States, this picture It is $ 63,589. Even the recording of America’s highest prices, the difference is huge. Add to these limited financial opportunities for young people – including those with university degrees – and Chinese households simply cannot afford more children.
The younger generation of Chinese parents faces an additional psychological obstacle, with the roots of lack of first -hand experience of large families. The vast majority of them grew up as only children in households with only two children as parents, as well as four grandparents. They had no cousins or brothers to play, but they had a large number of adult carers. As a result, many do not appreciate large families and find the concept overwhelming.
But all of these carers indicate large dependencies as generations of age. A small and shrinking group of Chinese working age, operating in a labor market characterized by sparse opportunities and low wages, now supports a larger and growing population of retired people limited access in pensions and health care. And their responsibilities extend beyond finances to include physical and emotional support.
As if it were not enough, every young man is also the only source of pride for his parents and grandparents, who have collected their lives collectively – their time, energy and money – to put the child for success. Young adults now have to win all the sacrifices made by their carers, effectively compensating their parents and grandparents for children and grandchildren who were never born.
This burden of responsibility is felt by starting from childhood. The playgrounds are largely licensed and parks are mainly inhabited by retirees, even after school and weekends. Children are more likely to be at home they are studying than outside the game. All this pressure can feed the growth rates depression and suicide Between young and young adults.
The situation is set to deteriorate. Slower economic growth – which has already led the unemployment of young people historically high -En will continue to limit the labor market by intensifying already stakes competition for limited opportunities and will prevent the government’s ability to increase pensions.
The Chinese government is of great interest in dealing with the crisis of the country’s families. Economic and social problems tend to evolve in unpredictable ways and can easily push political instability. Although the government has implemented a wide range of policies aimed at encouraging families to have children including monetary motivesFertility remains low.
How will a culture be built around family units and networks to fit as a nation of people without brothers and cousins? How will the elderly lives be when there are few young adults to take care of them? Can ordinary Chinese, in whom the family represents both a virtue and a way of life, feel satisfied without children? As a ghost of social and economic unrest, these questions must be answered.
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This article first appeared in Workshop.
