Filial Piety In Flow

Since the ancient times,filial piety has been the core content of Chinese traditional culture,carrying the cultural heritage of thousands of years,and it is also one of the long-standing cultural forms in China.In our country,filial piety has formed a stable traditional family model of respecting the elderly and loving the elderly,especially in rural areas,taking on the important functions of elderly care.However,with the arrival of the rural migrant economy,both the concepts and the behaviors of filial piety have changed.So far,the academia presents two trends for the current situation of rural filial piety:one the one hand,modernist thesis argues that the migration of labor has caused the imbalance of intergenerational relations in rural areas,which has led to the decline of filial piety,on the other hand,some counter-argument suggests that the intergenerational relationship of China in rural areas currently is in a negotiable state.The elderly are not the weak groups in the opinion of the modernist thesis.Their autonomy and agency in managing intergenerational relations cannot be ignored.Employing qualitative research methods of in-depth interviews and observations,this research examines three mobile generations from a working family in a village in central Henan Province:the grandparents,generation born in the founding period of China,the parents' generation born in 1960s-1970s and the children's generation who grows up in the new era.Through the comparative study of the life experiences and the filial piety of these three generations,this paper explores how the changing modern society rapidly influences the personal experience of family members in the context of social mobility,and how it affects the concepts and practice of filial piety.More importantly,this study intends to respond to the aforementioned two schools of arguments in relation to intergenerational relationship and filial piety,through the comparison of three generations.This study finds that filial piety has both temporal and spatial connotations.From the perspective of temporal evolution,filial piety,as the core content of Chinese traditional culture,has been endowed with rich connotations after a long history of 5,000 years,but its basic connotation and essence have not been changed.In modern society,filial piety still plays an important role as the most basic moral norm in today's society,but only the way of thoughts and behaviors have changed.In particular,the younger generation who have grown up in the new century have been parts of who practice filial piety to the elders,making the thoughts of filial piety more equal and democratic,and making the behaviors of filial piety more diversified and rational.