Family, The Basic Point of Social Security

By Chen Yiyun
The Institute of Sociology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

Since 60's, family system has encountered great challenges in some parts of the world, notably in some developed western countries. Divorce rate acquired from the number of marriages and divorces of the same year has reached 50% in North America and 30-40% in Western and Northern Europe, indicating that dissolution of family is becoming a commonplace in these countries. It is a lifestyle full in "vogue" for young men and you women not to marry, not give birth to a child or to have a natural child, for its reasons, firstly, values of individualism and sexual freedom conflicted with consciousness of responsibility required for permanence and stability of marriage and family relations, secondly, prosperous economy and advanced technology reduced the mutual reliability in their daily lives; fierce market competition and transfer of jobs made it difficult for an individual to give consideration to family lives. In addition, social welfare and social security system by the governments of western countries during economic boom after World War II and sophisticated social service industry seemed to have contributed to reducing the functions of family and seeking for an individual-oriented lifestyle. In a word, it is obvious that the value of conventional families is going downhill in western developed countries. As is it predicted by famous American sociologist Goodall in 90's, two-third of American young people entering into marriage relationships nowadays would choose to divorce. Hence, a number of young people from western countries raised their doubts: Does monogamy marriage still suit modern society? How long could the family mode in which a man and a woman nurture their children after marriage last? Some of them take the lead without any hesitation in "innovation", attempting to eliminate traditional marriage and families by various "substitution" modes, from non-marital cohabitation to illegitimacy and from marriage of same sex to give birth to a child through another woman. All these behaviors are recognized by personal freedom oriented western laws and moral norms. Someone acclaimed these behaviors as inevitable for acquiring freedom of personality and equality of men and women, while someone blamed these lifestyles as against nature, harmful to society and as the most uncivilized behaviors of 20^th century. In China, it is also difficult for the common people or even experts and scholars to discriminate the merits and demerits of these two arguments.

 

However, these tides of "innovation" from western world have "spread eastwards", through public media, economic and cultural exchanges and frequent comes-and-goes, to some developing countries include China after its reform and opening to the outside world. Both individualism values and avant-garde sexual relations are accepted and modeled after by some "avant-guard" young people, sexual freedom, non-marital cohabitation and extramarital love have been regarded as "vogue" and "surpassing" by some young people, thus resulting an increase in marriage crises and dissolution of families. From 1981 to 1996, divorce rate has doubled in China and even increased by 5 - 10 times in some large cities.

 

Quite a few such young people in China nowadays are confused: Will traditional monogamy family "extinguish"? What is the best lifestyle for men and women in 21^st century? Is the base point of social security the individual member of the society or the entire family as a whole? All these questions will be discussed in this article in the following paragraphs.

 

1.       Changes in marriage and families in China during transformation period of society

 

We are getting used to discuss the process of social changes in China since late 70's with the word "social transformation" to imply the rapid change from a traditional society to a modern society. Consensus has not been reached in academic circles on demarcating "traditional" and "modern" society. For the moment, we just take 30 years from 1949 to 1978 as China's "traditional" period and 20 years from 1978 to the present as elementary period of "modernization". There exist great differences in economy, politics, culture and population between these two periods. It is these changes and differences of the society, to a great extent, result in the changes and differences of marriage and families. Family, as the cell of the society, is very sensitive both in reflecting the progresses and achievements of the society and in mirroring the difficulties and conflicts in the development of society.

 

From the perspectives of difficulties and conflicts reflected by the family, diminishing of traditional functions of the family has brought down the capability of family members in providing the resources and bearing the responsibilities. During the elementary stage of China's modernization process, diminishing of functions of family has not yet integrated with the establishment and improvement of social security system, that is to say, the family security function has been weakened before the social security system are fully prepared for replacement, which has left the survival and development of some people insecure, thus resulting in a major social issues among urban residents. Even in some western welfare states where systems of social security are well founded, dissolution of a large amount of families has made family members incapable of supporting themselves become the burdens of the society, as the social security cannot afford to support all these people, a large number of the old and children, the sick and disabled, the employed and the homeless were left in poverty, loneliness and solitude.

 

China has seen a drastic increase of divorce rate both in urban and rural areas. Divorce rate in 1996 was 2.5 times that of 1979 (as shown in Table 1), of which, the rate is higher in large cities at 5-10 times that of 1979. Take Beijing as an example, its divorce rate was merely 2.5% in 1979 and reached 24% by 1996 (as shown in Table 2). From 1979-1996, 12 millions families disintegrated in China, of which 200,000 couples divorced in Beijing.

 

It is inevitable that dissolution of a family has its impact on all family members, while the impact is greater on children and women. According to a survey by the author on 100 divorced couples below 35 years old in two districts of Beijing in 1990, 85% of divorced women chose to raise the underaged children after divorce, only 22% of them have remarried compared with 80% for divorced men. 65% of single mothers professed that their economic conditions were worsening as a result of rise in prices, increase of expenses of upbringing and education, in addition to the facts that their divorced husbands paid little or no expenses of upbringing. 20% of single mothers have been sick, retired or laid-off, while their children were generally economically dependent, therefore it went without saying that they were suffering both economically and mentally. Single mothers and their underaged children constituted a special group in the poor population of large cities with their numbers keeps on increasing year by year. While this group has not been yet covered by the traditional welfare policies and social security system of the government. The situation of the old and disabled in these families were also worsening as the result of dissolution of family. The emerging community services were no longer gratuitous, it is difficult for these relatively poor single-parent families to enjoy these services; and the special requirements of these families in dire straits were seldom satisfied due to the lack of social workers in these community services. 

 

Table 1. Statistics on marriages and divorces in China from 1979-2000

                                                              Unit: couple

 

Year	Total number of registered marriages	Total number of divorces through administrative authorities and lawsuits	Divorce rate	Year	Total number of registered marriages	Total number of divorces through administrative authorities and lawsuits	Divorce rate
1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989	6330538 7166528 10371000 8307000 7592269 7784094 8290588 8989000 9247372 8971750 9351915	299932 341100 389100 428000 418000 453978 457939 506000 581484 655168 753296	4.7% 4.7% 3.7% 5.1% 5.5% 5.8% 5.5% 5.6% 6.2% 7.3% 8%	1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000	9486870 9509849 9545047 9121622 9290027 9297061 9339615 9090571 8916913 8799079 8420044	799435 829449 849616 909195 980980 1055196 1132215 1197759 1191162 1200566 1210713	8.4% 8.7% 8.9% 10% 10.6% 11.3% 12% 13.2% 13.4% 13.6% 14.4%

 

Table 2 Statistics on marriages and divorces in Beijing from 1979-2000

                                                              Unit: couple

Year	Total number of registered marriages	Total number of divorces through administrative authorities and lawsuits	Divorce rate	Year	Total number of registered marriages	Total number of divorces through administrative authorities and lawsuits	Divorce rate
1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989	134940 148716 200458 135059 117976 113182 129724 142466 150002 113762 103839	3405 3961 5177 5359 5322 5661 5874 7270 8937 10722 12575	2.5% 2.6% 2.5% 3.9% 4.5% 5% 4.5% 5.1% 5.9% 9.4% 12.1%	1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000	92988 91970 88322 89128 89636 84669 85294 83425 84631 83312 80212	14199 15297 15449 17829 19921 20160 20708 22257 23683 24135 26616	15.2% 16.6% 17.5% 20% 22.2% 23.8% 24% 26.7% 27.9% 28.9% 33.2%

 

2.       Is monogamy marriage system "outdated"?

 

As is it said by American historian Stephen Covey in his book Principle centered leadership, " Organization principles of sexual lives of human beings are the responses to nature and universe instead of being created by a certain people; it is these principles that laid a sound foundation for human lives and maintained the durability of these organizations, from family organization to all social organizations". ?

?Page 2, "Education on Mood and Character", Textbook of International Educational Foundation, New York, 1998

 

Monogamy marriage system, as the findings of years of exploration and selection of human being, is the outcome of civilization and progress of mode of living of two sexes and population reproduction. The system, after experiencing various changes in the long history of human beings, keeps on improving itself along with the development of social economy. While, it is beyond doubt that family established on the basis of monogamy marriage constituted the corner stone of social stability, unshakable and irreplaceable core of civilization tradition of human beings and source of security and welfare of personal lives.  As the anthropologist Meade said: "From the records of the activities of human beings in the very early time, we could find that lives of our ancestors were generally based on families. We have never found a nation could long flourish after destroying its families and replacing them with other forms of lifestyles. Although reforms have been repeatedly advocated and carried into action, our society had no option but to rely on family comprising of a father, a mother and their children as basic unit."? There appears various "avant-guard" "replacement modes" in western countries since 60's, while, instead of bringing about benefits to the society and individuals, "family revolution" in the western countries during last 50 years has brought about catastrophic consequences to western societies or even to the civilization process of the whole world. American social sciences scholars have suggested that juvenile delinquency, violence, drug abuse, maltreatment of women and children, sexual abuse, venereal diseases and AIDS flooded in American society are associated with family issues. According to a research report submitted to U.S government by scholars like Karl Zinsmeister, the key to tackle the social issues in U.S.A lies in re-strengthening of families. According to the report, it is shown by scientific evidences lain in a heap that children found it difficult to clear up from physical and psychic trauma, some trauma are unrecoverable for the rest of their lives. Dissolution of family has direct relations with pregnancy and abortion of young girl, non-marital birth, juvenile drug abuse and education crisis. ?

? Page 77 - 78, "Family" by Meade, New York, 1965

? Page 49, Education edition, New York Times dated Aug. 19, 1997

 

History and reality of lives of Chinese people have proved the irreplaceable value of monogamy system as the corner stone of civilized society and source of welfare security for individuals. Although the traditional functions of family has somewhat altered along with the social changes and implementation of "one-child for a couple" policy after China's reform and opening to the outside world, most of families are providing its members, especially underaged members with the affection, financial and materials resources essential for their growth and development; most of families are still caring, looking after and protecting the population incapable of supporting themselves like the old, disabled and sick; the family remains a key place for preserving and passing on the cultural resources and values. In terms of its significance, Chinese families are still

responsible for education, training and investment on growth of the next generation.

 

Special functions of the family in socialization of children, prevention and control of juvenile delinquency in any societies are undeniable. As a primary social administrative agency, its function of safety and security cannot and should not replaced by other means of social control. Exuberance and stability of families are prerequisites to the exuberance and stability of the communities, which in turn, contributes to the stability of the society.

 

China has the largest population and largest number of families in the world, in case these Chinese families failed to fulfill their obligations and provide essential security resources, the future troubles as the result of "dereliction of duty" of these families cannot be cleaned up by governments, non-governmental institutions and various social security system at whatever costs. That explains why both Chinese government and a number of nongovernmental bodies regarded highly of construction of family civilization as a task associated with social development in recent years, the public appraisal activities like five-virtue families, model couples, golden and silver wedding companions are aiming at consolidation of families and bringing the functions of families into full play.

 

3. Challenges encountered by security functions of families

 

As discussed above, the size, structure and functions of the family are changing along with the acceleration of China's urbanization, industrialization and modernization. Urbanization has resulted in the replacement of family-based working mode by working in cities for salaries in rural areas; as a result of division of labors, concentration of people in the work sites and introduction of market competition mechanism, people have spent much more time and energy in their posts of duty, their families are separated with their works, all these are adverse to the functions of the family. Because of large-scale movement of population and job-hopping under the market economy conditions, family members go their own ways in a search of different opportunities and lifestyles, As a result of availability of advanced telecommunication and communication facilities and information channels, people are more liable to accept and follow "avant-guard" concepts, and media lead young people to model on distinctive lifestyles. It has become more and more difficult for young people to give first priority to the interests of the entire family and their obligations and responsibilities to the family in determining their lifestyles. China has adopted a population control policy since 70's, urban couples have generally accepted the idea to give birth to only one child; with the improvement of urban living conditions, most of urban residents have moved from single-story houses to storied buildings, all these changes have made the size of families smaller and the "core family" becoming generalized and private.

 

Though the aforesaid changes are, in some sense, positive as individuals are becoming more and more independent and have more choices among diversified lifestyles, so that they are in a better condition to design their futures, these changes have brought about some other consequences like less exchanges and communications between husbands and wives and less sense of responsibility to family relations. Requirements of family members cannot be met in a number of families due to the changes of aspirations of some family members or limitation of objective conditions, or even exploitation, maltreatment and violence occurred in these families, thus bringing disasters to the children, women and the old in these families. The fact that more urban residents have moved into buildings and increase of number of core families have weakened the previous neighboring community supporting networks and relative supporting system of large families. Anyway, most of "core families" nowadays in China are not simply completely independent living units, some economic and cultural ties, relationships and cares between relatives are somewhat maintained, while things may be completely different for the families of next generation.

 

Most of men and women in competitive posts are confronted with the conflicted between their career roles and family roles as the result of value orientation of "substituting principle of benefit for principle of equality" under the market economy, this is generally a potential cause of tense relations in these families. Presently, it has become more and more difficult for the employed to take care of the old, sick and disabled, while there are no sufficient or adequate social service systems to share this responsibility. Though the emerging baby-sitters and time workers have somewhat alleviated the burdens of some families, the household assistants are far from popular and salaried persons are in no position to afford this kind of services due to the restriction of paying ability, housing conditions and concepts.

 

It should be admitted that the biggest challenges to the functions of the family originated from the changes of values. Principles of "personal struggle", "self actualization" and "freedom of personality" have been generally recognized in recent years by young or even middle-aged persons. Values like individualism, focusing on self, money worship and consumptionism conflicted with the values of collectivism and principle of personal sacrifice and dedication required for fulfilling the family obligations and responsibilities, with the relations between couples, between parents and sons and daughters and family relations impaired in the conflict of values, as a result, it would be more difficult for those families already in poor conditions to provide the resources and bear the responsibilities. Like divorced families, the families in the state of separation, discord, grudge or even coerce by violence would also be in no position to fulfill their functions.

 

4. Family is the basic point of social security

 

The process of reform of China's social economy and current situation of changes of families have made it imminent to establish and improve the social security system and relocate social resources.

 

Either