Love and Money Reshape Family in China
Getting married in today's China is far easier than even four years ago: The couple took a number, waited in line, and said "I do" in just over an hour. The certificate costs about $1.15. Marriage forms no longer ask frightening questions about parents' history or Communist Party affiliations. Nor must couples seek permission from their "work unit" boss, a major shift from last year. Marriage and public security bureaus are reportedly no longer connected.
Today, urban Chinese are free as never before to pursue what have become the twin engines of family dynamics heres love and money. In the 200 cities with more than a million people, love and money are dictating historic changes in the traditional family that had already been shrinking due to the one-child policy. Dating and romance are in, living with parents is out, wives and daughters enjoy enhanced roles. A new galaxy of attitudes and values is transforming the basic building block of Chinese society.
Love and money
Now, for the first time on a wide scale, Chinese may pursue a spouse of their own choosing. Only 2 in 10 young Chinese used to choose their life partner; today, 9 in 10 say they have or will, acc6rding to a China Daily report. Along with this, a discourse of "feeling" and "emotion" that used to exist mainly in elite circles is now heard at all levels, from tycoons to taxi drivers. Shops advertise "passion styles" for cars and kitchens. Romance novels are a rage.
In the past, couples often did not demonstrate affection inside a strict, loyalty-based family hierarchy. It was better not to, as Harvard sociologist Martin Why to points out, since it might suggest a son's loyalty was not entirely clear. Couples always lived with the husband's parents, and in times of argument, sons were expected to side with family elders, not wives. Sons were dependent on parents. Divorce was discouraged and nearly non-existent. Marriages were arranged among families or inside "work units"; a main criterion was the communist or "revolutionary" credentials of the spouse's family.
But now marriage is based on feeling. "I want to fall in love," says Ms. Xin, a 19-year-old student at a shopping mall. "I don't want to moan forever about money and jobs. Love is first. Other things are important but not first."
Yet the dreams of young women like Xin can be tempered by economic realities. She's part of the first generation who must find their own jobs and earn their own wages. This creates some anxiety. Apartments are no longer subsidized; jobs no longer guaranteed. Many parents have no advice for their offspring about a China evolving at a bewildering rate.
Wealth, it turns out, has caused many urban Chinese to think and behave in ways that don't always include families. Boarding schools have tripled in the past decade. Extramarital relations have skyrocketed. As the cost of living increases in urban China, many young women, often from outside the city, are subsidized by men.
A new concept: dating
China has 3,000-plus years of feudal order, guaranteed partly by a stable family. That family is now undeniably changing. Consider these structural shifts: Dating is a new concept, maybe four years old. Before, one never talked about a "boyfriend" or "girlfriend". A special friend was a "partner," and it implied an impending marriage. No longer. In the city, females will ask males out. Young Chinese want to get to know one another. The American "eight-minute date" has just hit Beijing.
In China's shift to a market economy, one key marriage player has been phased out: the work- unit boss. For 50 years, the boss was a de facto sergeant inside state-run enterprises. He or she policed behavior. among the sexes, assisted with family problems, often helped set up single women approaching the unofficial "spinster" a
A.Y
B.N
C.NG
______
The number of mixed couples in China this year______much larger than______ last year.
A.is; that
B.are; those
C.is; it
D.are; /
听力原文:W: I heard that your family arrived yesterday, didn't they?
M: Yes, they did.
W: That's good! Dr. Morrison, your family is now in China with you. You won't miss them, then. To talk about the family, I want to ask you some questions about American families. Er. . . Do you most Americans live in "small families" or "big families"?
M: In the United States, most people normally choose to live in "small families", but we call them "nuclear families".
W: What is the average size of a nuclear family?
M: Well, it depends on the number of children, because the nuclear family consists of a husband, a wife and children. However, if there are no children, then the husband and wife are the nuclear family. Of course, there may be only one parent due to a death, separation or divorce. In this ease, the nuclear family is the single parent and children.
W: Are there any big families in the United States?
M: Oh, you mean the extended family. No, not many. Most Americans, both the elderly and the young couples prefer to live in their own homes.
W: Since most Americans live in nuclear families rather than in extended families, the majority of the elderly do not see their children and their relatives, do they?
M: Wall, people often make such assumptions, but that is not the case according to recent sociological research.
W: Oh, what's that?
M: The recent research shows that more elderly people in the United States live within ten minutes of their children by car than in Denmark, and over 78 percent of the elderly have seen their children within a week.
W: Now I've got a general idea about American family structure. Thank you.
M: You're welcome.
Most Americans prefer to live in
A.big families
B.small families
C.nuclear families
D.middle size families
A.conscientious
B.conscious
C.consecutive
D.corporate
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