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Paper short abstract:

Based on longitudinal fieldwork conducted in Shenzhen with 15 families, this study explores evolving gender and generational dynamics in China’s middle-class families. It opens theoretical spaces to address the linkages between family, culture, and class in contemporary China.

Paper long abstract:

Based on longitudinal fieldwork conducted in Shenzhen with 15 families, this study explores evolving gender and generational dynamics in China’s middle-class. I report the following findings. First, in the context of escalating social stratification, low fertility and a patchy and unequal welfare system, rampant social anxieties among middle-class families to avoid downward social mobility predispose them to strategies of social reproduction via strengthening children’s educational prospects. Adding to the anxieties is an educational system that is hierarchical, stressful and elitist with high-stakes exams to screen out ‘losers’ from early on. As such, childrearing becomes an expansive and expensive project that involves an intergenerational coalition. Second, the childrearing coalition, comprising of parents and (increasingly maternal) grandparents, follows gendered and generationalized division of labour in an all-hands-on-deck approach to facilitate the child(ren)’s ‘all-round’ development, especially in educational competence. At the core of this coalition stands the ‘project-manager’ mother, whose dual responsibilities subject them to conflicting demands: whereas the workplace expects their maximum productivity as de-gendered workaholics, a re-gendered domestic sphere asks of her full commitment as the educational project-manager. Meanwhile, grandparents (often grandmothers) serve as the family ‘reserve labour force’ to pick up the bulk of housework and other ‘unskilled’ aspects of childcare. Findings point to intricate gender and generational negotiation at work in carrying out the families’ collective project of childrearing. The study uncovers coexisting resilience and vulnerabilities of middle-class families in a neoliberal economy and opens theoretical spaces to address the linkages between family, culture, and class in contemporary China.