In China, the extended family with several generations living together has existed for a few thousand years. In such big families, the most senior member is the head of household and has the most power. He or she controls the finance of the whole household and decides the marriages of sons, daughters, grandsons and grand daughters and also decides the future of the children. If he or she wants the son to be a merchant, he then has to be a merchant. If he or she wants the daughter not to go to school, then the daughter has to be obedient. In such big families, women of the younger generation do not have any status and can only obey the elders and their husbands. The duties of women are to bear children and cook for the big family.... Whichever woman gives birth to more sons, she will have greater contribution to the big family; whichever big family has more children and male offsprings, the head of household of that family will feel happy and proud.

Such traditional family concepts and family structure started to change several decades ago. The heads of household no longer have such big power. They allow children to love freely and choose their own future. Women also have status now. They leave home and go to work. When the eighties came, such changes were even greater. In the city, extended families are practically non-existent anymore. The young are no longer willing to live with the old. They want to be independent and establish their nuclear family freely. Older people also no longer try to maintain their status as heads of household, but to pursue their own new life at old age. New nuclear families no longer have many sons and daughters, but one ‘little emperor’ per family. The mothers of ‘little emperors’ have also raised their status, from having no power to having great power. Some mothers have even become heads of households.

A new family relationship is being established and developed.