With industrialization，urbanization and modernization, the family institution has inevitably undergone changes. China has witnessed extraordinary social transformations over the past three decades. These forces have jointly brought about profound changes to the family organization. This paper traces the changing trend, patterns and characteristics in family structure, explores the causes of such change, and analyzes its consequences to family relationships andfamily functions in recent years in China. It has found that family size has shrunk，number of generations in the family is reduced，family forms
become more diversified, and family relationship remain intimate but distanced. Also, many traditional family functions have been taken over by public agencies，and family norms and culture have been reshaped. While changesoccur in various ways and important challenges remain，the Chinese family has been so far resilient to societal transformation due to its deeply rooted tradition and current structural constraints. These have made intergenerational reciprocity attractive and prevented the Chinese family from decline. In the future, the government and the family have to face challenges brought about by demographic transition, persistently large-scale migration, and changing norms towards the family.

Drawing on data from the 2005 National One Percent Population Survey and utilizing multilevel modeling technique，this paper examines the living conditions among internal migrants in China. By highlighting the types and the locations of hukou，its primary goal is to disentangle institutional and structural barriers from individual demographic and socioeconomic effects. Analytical results indicate that controlling other factors does not overshadow the effect of migration status on the living conditions of migrants，and a significant disadvantage of rural- urban migrants is detected. It is clear that national policies that urge local governments to embrace rural- urban migrants in the agenda of housing welfare have not achieved desired outcomes and perhaps even exacerbated their poor living conditions by posing various restrictions to the housing market. Migration as an individual and /or household strategy，while enhancing employment opportunities and income，does not necessarily bring about a better living condition for rural- urban migrants. However，results do support the link between social mobility and spatial mobility in that urban- urban migrants are able to translate their socioeconomic achievements into a better living condition. Also，consistent with the interpretation of standard assimilation models，duration of residence at destination has a strong influence on the response variable，pointing to the diversity of experiences and contexts of arrival for different types of population.