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CHAIRPERSON

Dr Xiaorong Gu, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore

ABSTRACT

This study explores the Chinese state’s logic and behavior pattern in family policy-making from a historical perspective. The central argument is that in numerous ways and during different periods, a statist approach is employed in the making of family policies and in the reshaping of the Chinese family and it is at odds with traditional familism and modern individualism. This statist approach emerged in the early 20^th century, taking the form of family revolution for nation-state building. It was adopted by both the Nationalist government and the Communist rebels during the 1930s and 1940s, and statism transcends the party lines to make familism and individualism the enemies of the nation-state. The study goes into details to examine the changing family polices and laws in China from the 1950s to the present, arguing that such a statist approach generated complex, inconsistent, and sometimes even conflicting policy results, which has, intriguingly, contributed to the rise of neo-familism in the early 21^st century.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Yunxiang Yan is Professor of Anthropology at University of California, Los Angeles, USA, and Adjunct Professor at School of Public Policy and Social Development, Fudan University, China. He is the author of The Flow of Gifts: Reciprocity and Social Networks in a Chinese Village (Stanford University Press, 1996), Private Life under Socialism: Love, Intimacy, and Family Change in a Chinese Village, 1949-1999 (Stanford University Press, 2003), and The Individualization of Chinese Society (Berg publishers, 2009). His research interests include family and kinship, social change, the individual and individualization, and moral changes in post-Mao China. 

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