关键词: 家庭变迁, 家庭规模, 家庭关系, 家庭策略, 家庭类型

Abstract: Family change is an important perspective to unveil social changes in China. Drawing upon data from population censuses, this paper examines the characteristics and trends of Chinese family change over the past several decades, particularly after China's reform and opening-up, focusing on family size, family relationship, and family strategy. Chinese household size has been declining, and the family intergenerational structure has shifted to one generation households, with family types being diversified and dominated by nuclear families. Family relationships tend to become more equal and democratic, family production function is increasingly expanded, while family support function presents different characteristics between urban and rural areas. Under the changing urban-rural divide in China and globalization, the option of family strategies has been manifested in the active adjustment and adaptation of contemporary Chinese families in response to the rapid and complex social changes. While being dominated by nuclear and stem families, Chinese traditional family patterns would become increasingly diversified in the future.