Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T02:54:28.675Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Perceptions and expectations of filial piety among older Chinese immigrants in Canada

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 July 2020

Weiguo Zhang*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]

Abstract

Much of the literature discusses filial piety in general and ambiguous terms. This study, in contrast, investigates specific perceptions of filial piety and parental expectations of filial duty among older Chinese immigrants in Canada. The study is based on thematic analysis of 46 Chinese immigrants in seven focus groups conducted in the Greater Toronto Area. Findings show the perceptions of filial piety varied, but almost all participants had reduced expectations of their children. Nevertheless, they still valued and expected emotional care from their children. The study argues that changes in institutional settings, social policies and welfare systems define parents’ support needs and affect their expectations in the host society, while norms and institutional settings in the place of origin influence their perceptions of filial piety.

Type
Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aboderin, I (2004) Modernisation and ageing theory revisited: current explanations of recent developing world and historical Western shifts in material family support for older people. Ageing & Society 24, 2950.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bass, SA and Morris, R (1993) International Perspectives on State and Family Support for the Elderly. New York, NY: Haworth Press.Google Scholar
Bedford, O and Yeh, KH (2019) The history and the future of the psychology of filial piety: Chinese norms to contextualized personality construct. Frontiers in Psychology 10, 111.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bell, D (2008) China's New Confucianism Politics and Everyday Life in a Changing Society. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Bengtson, VL and Lowenstein, A (2017) Global Aging and Challenges to Families. New York, NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
Bengtson, VL and Putney, NM (2000) Who will care for tomorrow's elderly? Consequences of population aging East and West. In Bengtson, VL, Kim, KD, Myers, GC and Ki-Soo, E (eds), Aging in East and West: Families, States, and the Elderly. New York, NY: Springer, pp. 263286.Google Scholar
Bengtson, VL and Roberts, REL (1991) Intergenerational solidarity in aging families: an example of formal theory construction. Journal of Marriage and Family 53, 856870.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Braun, V and Clarke, V (2006) Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology 3, 77101.10.1191/1478088706qp063oaCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Canda, ER (2013) filial piety and care for elders: a contested Confucian virtue reexamined. Journal of Ethnic & Cultural Diversity in Social Work 22, 213234.10.1080/15313204.2013.843134CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chan, A and Tan, SH (2004) Filial Piety in Chinese Thought and History. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen, I (1908) The Book of Filial Duty. London: J. Murray.Google Scholar
Chen, L (2017) Power and ambivalence in intergenerational communication: deciding to institutionalize in Shanghai. Journal of Aging Studies 41, 4451.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chen, SX, Bond, MH and Tang, D (2007) Decomposing filial piety into filial attitudes and filial enactments. Asian Journal of Social Psychology 10, 213223.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen, X, Talwar, D and Ji, Q (2015) Social network and social support among elderly Asian immigrants in the United States. Global Journal of Anthropology Research 2, 1521.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cheng, ST and Chan, ACM (2006) Filial piety and psychological well-being in well older Chinese. Journals of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences 61B, 262269.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cheung, PLA (2019) Changing perception of the rights and responsibilities in family care for older people in urban China. Journal of Aging & Social Policy 31, 298320.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cheung, CK and Kwan, AYH (2009) The erosion of filial piety by modernisation in Chinese cities. Ageing & Society 29, 179198.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cheung, CK, Kwan, AYH and Ng, SH (2006) Impacts of filial piety on preference for kinship versus public care. Journal of Community Psychology 34, 617634.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
China National Committee on Ageing (1996) 中华人民共和国老年人权益保障法 [Law of the People's Republic of China on Protection of the Rights and Interests of the Elderly]. Beijing: Hualing Press.Google Scholar
Chong, AML and Liu, S (2016) Receive or give? Contemporary views among middle-aged and older Chinese adults on filial piety and well-being in Hong Kong. Asia Pacific Journal of Social Work and Development 26, 214.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chou, RJA (2011) Filial piety by contract? The emergence, implementation, and implications of the ‘family support agreement’ in China. The Gerontologist 51, 316.10.1093/geront/gnq059CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ciobanu, RO, Fokkema, T and Nedelcu, M (2017) Ageing as a migrant: vulnerabilities, agency and policy implications. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 43, 164181.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, WA (2002) Transformation of the Welfare State: The Silent Surrender of Public Responsibility. Ipswich, MA: Ebsco Publishing.Google Scholar
Clarke, V and Braun, V (2017) Thematic analysis. Journal of Positive Psychology 12, 297298.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Corbin, JM and Strauss, AL (1997) Grounded Theory in Practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Cowgill, D (1974) Aging and modernization: a revision of the theory. In Gubrium, JF (ed.), Late Life; Communities and Environmental Policy. Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas, pp. 123146.Google Scholar
Croll, EJ (2006) The intergenerational contract in the changing Asian family. Oxford Development Studies 34, 473491.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dai, YT and Dimond, MF (1998) Filial piety. A cross-cultural comparison and its implications for the well-being of older parents. Journal of Gerontological Nursing 24, 1318.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Daphna, G and Merril, S (2006) Norms of filial responsibility for aging parents across time and generations. Journal of Marriage and Family 68, 961976.Google Scholar
de Valk, HAG and Schans, D (2008) ‘They ought to do this for their parents’: perceptions of filial obligations among immigrant and Dutch older people. Ageing & Society 28, 4966.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Diwan, S, Lee, S and Sen, S (2011) Expectations of filial obligation and their impact on preferences for future living arrangements of middle-aged and older Asian Indian immigrants. Journal of Cross-cultural Gerontology 26, 5569.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dong, X and Chang, ES (2017) Social networks among the older Chinese population in the USA: findings from the PINE study. Gerontology 63, 238252.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dong, X, Chang, ES, Wong, E and Simon, M (2012) A qualitative study of filial piety among community dwelling, Chinese, older adults: changing meaning and impact on health and well-being. Journal of Intergenerational Relationships 10, 131146.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fei, X (1983) 家庭结构变动中的老年赡养问题–再论中国家庭结构的变动 [Elderly care in families in transition]. Journal of Peking University (Humanities and Social Sciences) 3, 615.Google Scholar
Feng, Z (2017) Filial piety and old-age support in China: tradition, continuity, and change. In Zang, X and Zhao, LX (eds), Handbook on the Family and Marriage in China. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing, pp. 266285.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feng, Z (2019) Global convergence: aging and long-term care policy challenges in the developing world. Journal of Aging & Social Policy 31, 291297.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fu, TH and Hughes, R (2009) Ageing in East Asia: Challenges and Policies for the Twenty-first Century. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Glendinning, C, Halliwell, S, Jacobs, S, Rummery, K and Tyrer, J (2000) New kinds of care, new kinds of relationships: how purchasing services affects relationships in giving and receiving personal assistance. Health & Social Care in the Community 8, 201211.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gray, J and Petrich, F (2014) Elder law: a new twist on filial responsibility in Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, October 26.Google Scholar
Green, M and Lawson, V (2011) Recentring care: interrogating the commodification of care. Social & Cultural Geography 12, 639654.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grootegoed, E and van Dijk, D (2012) The return of the family? Welfare state retrenchment and client autonomy in long-term care. Journal of Social Policy 41, 677694.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guo, M, Kim, S and Dong, X (2019) Sense of filial obligation and caregiving burdens among Chinese immigrants in the United States. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 67, S564S570.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Guo, M, Byram, E and Dong, X (2020) Filial expectation among Chinese immigrants in the United States of America: a cohort comparison. Ageing & Society 40, 22662286.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Guo, Q, Gao, X, Sun, F and Feng, N (2020) Filial piety and intergenerational ambivalence among mother–adult child dyads in rural China. Ageing & Society 40, 26952710.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hamilton, GG (1990) Patriarchy, patrimonialism, and filial piety: a comparison of China and Western Europe. British Journal of Sociology 41, 77104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hareven, TK (1996) Aging and Generational Relations Over the Life Course: A Historical and Cross-cultural Perspective. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hsu, HC, Lew-Ting, CY and Wu, SC (2001) Age, period, and cohort effects on the attitude toward supporting parents in Taiwan. The Gerontologist 41, 742750.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Huang, Q (2019) 论五四时期的‘孝道悖论’ On filial piety paradox during the May 4th era. Journal of Literature, History and Philosophy 3, 24–34, 165, 166.Google Scholar
Ikels, C (2004) Filial Piety: Practice and Discourse in Contemporary East Asia. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Inglehart, R (1977) The Silent Revolution: Changing Values and Political Styles Among Western Publics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Inglehart, R (1997) Modernization and Postmodernization: Cultural, Economic, and Political Change in 43 Societies. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jamieson, G (1970) Chinese Family and Commercial Law. Hong Kong: Vetch and Lee.Google Scholar
Jordan, DK (1998) Filial piety in Taiwanese popular thought. In Slote, WH and De Vos, GA (eds), Confucianism and the Family. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, pp. 267284.Google Scholar
Kagitcibasi, C and Ataca, B (2015) Value of children, family change, and implications for the care of the elderly. Cross-cultural Research 49, 374392.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kendig, H, Hashimoto, A and Coppard, LC (1992) Family Support for the Elderly: The International Experience. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
King, R, Lulle, A, Sampaio, D and Vullnetari, J (2017) Unpacking the ageing–migration nexus and challenging the vulnerability trope. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 43, 182198.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krueger, RA (1998) Analyzing & Reporting Focus Group Results. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lai, DWL and Surood, S (2009) Filial piety in Chinese Canadian family caregivers. International Journal of Sociology of the Family 35, 89104.Google Scholar
Laidlaw, K, Wang, D, Coelho, C and Power, M (2010) Attitudes to ageing and expectations for filial piety across Chinese and British cultures: a pilot exploratory evaluation. Aging & Mental Health 14, 283292.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lan, PC (2002) Subcontracting filial piety: elder care in ethnic Chinese immigrant families in California. Journal of Family Issues 23, 812835.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, WKM and Kwok, HK (2005) Differences in expectations and patterns of informal support for older persons in Hong Kong: modification to filial piety. Ageing International 30, 188206.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lesemann, F and Martin, C (1993) Home-based Care, the Elderly, the Family, and the Welfare State: An International Comparison. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press.Google Scholar
Leung, VWY, Lam, CM and Liang, Y (2020) Parents’ expectations of familial elder care under the neoliberal Hong Kong society. Journal of Family Issues 41, 437459.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, WW (2011) Filial piety, parental piety and community piety. OMNES: The Journal of Multicultural Society 2, 130.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, L and Cao, S (2018) Chinese and Western concepts of filial piety: a cultural study. Academics 236, 275282.Google Scholar
Lieber, E, Nihira, K and Mink, IT (2004) Filial piety, modernization, and the challenges of raising children for Chinese immigrants: quantitative and qualitative evidence. Ethos 32, 324347.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lin, X, Bryant, C, Boldero, J and Dow, B (2015) Older Chinese immigrants’ relationships with their children: a literature review from a solidarity–conflict perspective. The Gerontologist 55, 9901005.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Liu, JH, Ng, SH, Weatherall, A and Loong, C (2000) Filial piety, acculturation, and intergenerational communication among New Zealand Chinese. Basic and Applied Social Psychology 22, 213223.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lowenstein, A and Daatland, SO (2006) Filial norms and family support in a comparative cross-national context: evidence from the OASIS study. Ageing & Society 26, 203223.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Luo, H and Menec, V (2018) Social capital and health among older Chinese immigrants: a cross-sectional analysis of a sample in a Canadian prairie city. Journal of Cross-cultural Gerontology 33, 6581.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Montigny, EA (1997) Foisted upon the Government? State Responsibilities, Family Obligations, and the Care of the Dependent Aged in Late Nineteenth-century Ontario (McGill-Queen's/Hannah Institute Studies in the History of Medicine, Health, and Society No. 6). Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press.Google Scholar
Morgan, DL (1996) Focus groups. Annual Review of Sociology 22, 129152.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ng, SH (2002) Will families support their elders? Answers from across cultures. In Nelson, TD (ed). Ageism: Stereotyping and Prejudice Against Older Persons. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 295309.Google Scholar
Ng, ACY, Phillips, DR and Lee, WKM (2002) Persistence and challenges to filial piety and informal support of older persons in a modern Chinese society: a case study in Tuen Mun, Hong Kong. Journal of Aging Studies 16, 135153.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nisbett, RE (2003) The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently – and Why. New York, NY: Free Press.Google Scholar
North, MS and Fiske, ST (2015) Modern attitudes toward older adults in the aging world: a cross-cultural meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin 141, 9931021.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pavolini, E and Ranci, C (2008) Restructuring the welfare state: reforms in long-term care in Western European countries. Journal of European Social Policy 18, 246259.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Qi, X (2014) Filial obligation in contemporary China: evolution of the culture-system. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour 45, 141161.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ruggles, S (2003) Multigenerational families in nineteenth-century America. Continuity and Change 18, 139165.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saunders, B, Sim, J, Kingstone, T, Baker, S, Waterfield, J, Bartlam, B, Burroughs, H and Jinks, C (2018) Saturation in qualitative research: exploring its conceptualization and operationalization. Quality & Quantity 52, 18931907.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Scheil-Adlung, X (2015) Long-term care protection for older persons: a review of coverage deficits in 46 countries. International Labour Organization, Extension of Social Security Working Paper 50.Google Scholar
Shi, L (2009) ‘Little quilted vests to warm parents’ hearts’: redefining the gendered practice of filial piety in rural north-eastern China. China Quarterly 198, 348363.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simmons, AJ (1979) Moral Principles and Political Obligations. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Sin, W (2019 a) Adult children's obligations towards their parents: a contractualist explanation. Journal of Value Inquiry 53, 1932.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sin, W (2019 b) Confucianism, rule-consequentialism, and the demands of filial obligations. Journal of Religious Ethics 47, 377393.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Slote, MA (1979) Obedience and illusions. In O'Neill, O and Ruddick, W (eds), Having Children. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, pp. 319326.Google Scholar
Strauss, AL and Corbin, JM (1998) Basics of Qualitative Research: Techniques and Procedures for Developing Grounded Theory. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Stuifbergen, MC, Dykstra, PA, Lanting, KN and van Delden, JJM (2010) Autonomy in an ascribed relationship: the case of adult children and elderly parents. Journal of Aging Studies 24, 257265.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sun, KC (2012) Fashioning the reciprocal norms of elder care: a case of immigrants in the United States and their parents in Taiwan. Journal of Family Issues 33, 12401271.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sung, KT (1995) Measures and dimensions of filial piety in Korea. The Gerontologist 35, 240247.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sung, KT (1998) An exploration of actions of filial piety. Journal of Aging Studies 12, 369386.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Therborn, G (2004) Between Sex and Power Family in the World, 1900–2000 (International Library of Sociology). London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas, E (1990) Filial piety, social change and Singapore youth. Journal of Moral Education 19, 192205.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tsai, JH (1999) Meaning of filial piety in the Chinese parent–child relationship: implications for culturally competent health care. Journal of Cultural Diversity 6, 2634.Google ScholarPubMed
United Nations (2019) World Population Prospects 2019. New York, NY: Department of Economic and Social Affairs Population Division.Google Scholar
Walker, A (1991) Relationship between the family and the state in the care of older people. Canadian Journal on Aging 10, 94112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Warnes, AM and Williams, A (2006) Older migrants in Europe: a new focus for migration studies. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 32, 12571281.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Warnes, AM, Friedrich, K, Kellaher, L, Torres, S and Mälardalens, H (2004) The diversity and welfare of older migrants in Europe. Ageing & Society 24, 307326.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wei, Y (2017) 老龄社会背景下的孝文化重构 [The reconstruction of filial piety culture in the ageing society]. Scientific Research on Aging 5, 311.Google Scholar
Wharton, AS (2009) The sociology of emotional labor. Annual Review of Sociology 35, 147165.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whyte, MK (2004) Filial obligations in Chinese families: paradoxes of modernization. In Ikels, C (ed.), Filial Piety: Practice and Discourse in Contemporary East Asia. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, pp. 106127.Google Scholar
Wu, FYT (1975) Mandarin-speaking aged Chinese in the Los Angeles area. The Gerontologist 15, 271275.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Xu, J (2012) Filial piety and intergenerational communication in China: a nationwide study. Journal of International Communication 18, 3348.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yan, Y (2003) Private Life Under Socialism Love, Intimacy, and Family Change in a Chinese Village, 1949–1999. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yang, SJ (2017) The reconciliation of filial piety and political authority in early China. Dao 16, 187203.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yao, Y (2001) 中国家庭养老研究 [Study on Family Support for Elderly in China]. Beijing: China Population Press.Google Scholar
Yeh, KH, Yi, CC, Tsao, WC and Wan, PS (2013) Filial piety in contemporary Chinese societies: a comparative study of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China. International Sociology 28, 277296.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yim, HYB, Lee, LWM and Ebbeck, M (2013) Preservation of Confucian values in early childhood education: a study of experts’ and educators’ views. Asia-Pacific Journal of Research in Early Childhood Education 7, 5168.Google Scholar
Yoon, E and Kropf, NP (2018) Correlated factors with filial piety expectations of older Koreans and Korean-Americans. Journal of Ethnic & Cultural Diversity in Social Work 27, 310327.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yu, LC (1983) Patterns of filial belief and behavior within the contemporary Chinese American family. International Journal of Sociology of the Family 13, 1736.Google Scholar
Yue, X and Ng, SH (1999) Filial obligations and expectations in China: current views from young and old people in Beijing. Asian Journal of Social Psychology 2, 215226.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhan, HJ (2004) Willingness and expectations: intergenerational differences in attitudes toward filial responsibility in China. Marriage & Family Review 36, 175200.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhan, HJ, Liu, G and Guan, X (2006) Willingness and availability: explaining new attitudes toward institutional elder care among Chinese elderly parents and their adult. Journal of Aging Studies 20, 279290.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhan, HJ, Feng, Z, Chen, Z and Feng, X (2011) The role of the family in institutional long-term care: cultural management of filial piety in China. International Journal of Social Welfare 20, S121S134.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhang, X, Clarke, CL and Rhynas, SJ (2019) What is the meaning of filial piety for people with dementia and their family caregivers in China under the current social transitions? An interpretative phenomenological analysis. Dementia 18, 26202634.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed