Instilling Care
Self-care and other-care in contemporary Chinese families
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7146/qs.v8i2.140959Keywords:
Socialisation goal, care, ChinaAbstract
This paper explores the concept of care as a socialisation goal for school-age children among contemporary Chinese parents. Data was generated from interviews with parents from rural and urban families in Nanjing, China in 2011– 2012. Parents’ spontaneous remarks on care revealed how today’s Chinese parents highlighted childcare as parental responsibilities, cultivated children’s self-care skills, and promoted children’s other-caring qualities. In so doing, parents attempted to motivate concurrent and future elder care, improve children’s social competence, and inspire altruistic other-care in their children. Although Chinese parents’ imagination of care is largely centralised within the family due to sociocultural contexts such as the culture of intensive parenthood, China’s care deficiency in a neoliberal economy, and the One-Child Policy, Chinese parents also aspired instilling other-caring qualities in their children.
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