Chinese families are supported on the shoulders of grandparents

Translated by Gaia Baraldi

Although birth control policies in the People's Republic of China have gradually become less restrictive, now allowing up to three children, the country faces a series of demographic challenges, ranging from a rapidly aging population to a birth rate well below natural replacement level. In this context of demographic decline, Chinese women's fertility decisions are the product of a complex web of interactions between individual motivations and structural conditions.

Contemporary Chinese families operate within a condition of “mosaic temporality,” a term that captures the complex process of institutional and cultural reconfiguration in Chinese society. In this context, the most significant change has probably been the collapse of the danwei (单位), a key system in Chinese welfare that, among other things, provided access to childcare services. In fact, the collapse of the danwei paved the way for the privatisation and marketisation of what had previously been a collective support system, resulting in the loss of two-thirds of public nurseries between 1997 and 2006. The most obvious consequence of this shift is being felt by Chinese women who, despite still having a high rate of participation in the workforce (60% in 2024, compared to an average of 54% in high-income countries), have found themselves facing a significant increase in their burden of responsibility.

In most Chinese middle-class families, women are expected to pursue intensive motherhood, which symbolizes the broader shift in China’s reproductive model from quantity to quality. One example is the constant pursuit of a competitive advantage in children’s education, with mothers being entrusted with the responsibility of fostering their children’s academic success. This phenomenon, referred to as the educational arms race (教育领域的军备竞赛), has significantly increased the time and energy required of Chinese mothers. Furthermore, the absence of fathers due to social or structural conditions such as the work culture has given rise to the phenomenon of "widowed parenthood": mothers are required to perform almost all parental duties, making the daily lives of working mothers doubly burdensome.

Faced with these structural shortcomings and new parenting challenges, families are increasingly turning to grandmothers as a practical solution. Indeed, in contemporary China, intergenerational care from grandmothers to their grandchildren is an informal yet crucial mechanism that simultaneously allows Chinese mothers to continue working and meet high Chinese standards of parenting. This is not a matter of personal preference on the part of parents or grandparents, but a structural necessity. To make up for the lack of an institutional childcare system, around 60% of Chinese grandparents help look after their grandchildren, both in rural and urban areas (where the phenomenon is slightly more widespread).

An almost inevitable consequence of the importance of grandparents in childcare is the growing influence they exert on the fertility intentions of Chinese mothers. This occurs primarily through two effects arising from the support they provide. On the one hand, through ‘services’ such as free accommodation, financial support and daily childcare, grandparents are able to significantly alleviate the logistical and financial barriers of parenthood. On the other hand, grandparents gain a kind of strong moral leverage from their help, influencing parents’ decisions to have a second or third child within a context of expected reciprocity. This is closely linked to the concept of care in old age, making pregnancy not only the result of a personal choice but also an intergenerational obligation.

The term that best describes the current situation of Chinese families is mosaic familism: a hybrid configuration in which traditional and modern models coexist and are configured flexibly, born from the need to respond to a series of social and economic constraints. This configuration is both the cause and consequence of the various changes underway in the intergenerational dynamics of Chinese society. An example can be observed in the informal division of “mothering” labor between grandmothers and mothers, succinctly captured by Xiao Suowei of Beijing Normal University, who describes it as yan mu ci zu (严母慈祖), meaning “grandparents provide, mothers teach.” Other examples include the flattening of intergenerational power dynamics, making “filial piety” no longer a social obligation but rather an emotional reciprocity cultivated in everyday life.

Although this process has only begun to take hold in Chinese society for less than thirty years, some signs of a decline in family dependence on older members are already visible. Indeed, given the intense pressure shifted from mothers to grandmothers in particular, some have already begun to limit their "parental" roles to regain their own individuality. This latest change highlights the gradual erosion and breakdown of the single-nuclear family model, which is giving way to a dual-nuclear family model: two generations forming separate units, pursuing their own personal interests and establishing more independent and equitable relationships.

In summary, the intensive involvement of grandparents in childcare serves as a fundamental substitute for the reduction of Chinese welfare. This widespread and informal social practice is a practical and normalized solution that clearly reveals how Chinese women’s decision to pursue pregnancy is increasingly less a personal choice and more the result of family negotiation.

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