Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No.1, 2020

The Lineal Family: An Analysis of the Contemporary Family Form and Intergenerational Relationships

(Abstract)

Wang Yuesheng

The contemporary form of the Chinese family is significantly “modern,” but “traditional” behavior in the parent-child relationship is still very strong. The existing concept of the family finds it hard to express the life practice and interactive state of the parent-child relationship: a state of simultaneous separation and integration. The concept of the lineal family integrates families or households composed of surviving members of the line of descent into a new kinship organization, organically reassembling the formally discrete and independent families and households into a relational family that is both “virtual” and “real.” The concept of the lineal family offers a new method of analyzing the contemporary family and its relationships by combining family structure with intergenerational relationships so as to obtain more abundant information on the style of living and intergenerational relationships of surviving lineal members. Drawing on the survey data of the first generation of one-child families in five provinces and cities in 2015, this paper focuses on the first generation of urban one-child parents to analyze the characteristics of simple lineal families in contemporary cities from the perspective of the family lines of both husband and wife, with a view to demonstrating that the study of lineal families is a feasible analytical paradigm and an effective way to gain a comprehensive understanding of the style of living, level of interaction and problems of lineal family members. The concept of the lineal family not only has value for enriching and expanding the theory of the family; it also has strong practical significance for society.