A three-day symposium on Family Harmony, Social Progress and Gender Equality wrapped up in Beijing on May 23. The event was co-sponsored by the Chinese Women’s Research Society and China Association of Marriage and Family Studies.

Current problems affecting Chinese families are related to the country's economic and social transformation. It is the government’s duty to support the healthy development of families. Tang Can, a research fellow at the Institute of Sociology under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that traditional family functions have been weakened amid great changes to the traditional family structure and stability. Meanwhile, he added, the family will replace the country or collective to bear more responsibilities of social insurance and welfare with the disintegration of rural collectivization and the urban unit system. “Family problems, which no longer belong to private fields, are of clear public significance in China. They have begun to exert influence on public fields and social development. The formulating of family policy is increasingly of strategic significance,” said Tang.

The Chinese version appeared in Chinese Social Sciences Today, No. 600, May 26, 2014.

The Chinese link: http://www.csstoday.net/xueshuzixun/jishizixun/89752.html

Translated by Yu Hui

Revised by Tom Fearon