Chinese Family Life in America
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4958524 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Norman S Hayner, Charles N Reynolds |
| Year | 1937 |
| Volume | 2 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 630 |
| Publication date | 1937-10-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Sociological Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0003-1224 • E-ISSN: 1939-8271 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/2083815 |
| OpenAlex | W2319277630 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
M t } ZANY Chinese husbands and wives as well as fathers and children live on opposite shores of the Pacific Ocean. This separation exiF plains the fact that the United States Census for I930 reported as married more than four times as many Chinese men as women. Since there were in I930 only about two Chinese children for every three married Chinese males in the United States, it is obvious that a majority of the children were also across the water. In fact a substantial proportion of these children may be found with their mothers or relatives in the southern province of Kwangtung. This means that during part of its history the typical Chinese family in America has been a broken family. Furthermore, if the wife and children eventually come to the West, they are years behind the husband or father in acceptance of Western mores. Under the old regime in China a married mother was more a daughterin-law than a wife. There is a proverb: A son-in-law may perform one-half of the duty of a son, but a daughter-in-law must do twice as much as a daughter. As long as her parents-in-law were alive she had an obligation to serve them. If her husband left for America, she stayed at home. These Chinese mores were strengthened by the Exclusion Act of i882 which forbids alien Chinese laborers bringing their wives or children to this country. Many children of Chinese residents in America were, of course, born in China. It is also a common practice to send the eldest son back to China for his education in Chinese language and customs and for his marriage. In the words of one of the older generation
Biology · Chinese family · Sociology · Genetics · Migration and Labor Dynamics · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy · Psychology
| Citations per year | 0.09 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 1980 - 2010 (31) |
| Highly cited | No |