Are the post-90s who don’t want to interact with relatives the "rootless generation"?
I can’t remember when, between 27-year-old Liu Fang and 72-year-old grandmother, the conversation topics are always two parallel lines: Grandma’s conversations are often the second uncle, cousin, and cousin, while Liu Fang can only Mention friends, colleagues, classmates.
"There seems to be a generation gap between my grandma and I, and it doesn't seem to be as simple as a generation gap." Liu Fang said, grandma had always lived in the countryside before and after the house. There were relatives in front of and behind the house. I ran over to help immediately.
Before Liu Fang went to work, the frequency of returning to his hometown in the countryside was steadily maintained at once a year. After work, it became unknown, and relatives who were unfamiliar with him became even more unfamiliar.
Grandma always complained about her, "Why don't you even recognize the elders, then you have something, who can you call for help?" Liu Fang could only smile bitterly, "I don't have this condition, there is someone in my life circle who has relatives. You can count it with your hands."
Some people call the post-90s generation like Liu Fang the "rootless generation": born in the city, growing up in the city, rich in material conditions, weak in human relations, weakening of relatives and strengthening of friends.
Liu Wenrong, an associate researcher at the Institute of Sociology, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, believes that the weakening of kinship is an inevitable trend in the development of urbanization. , But to understand and analyze from the actual social environment.
Do you want to maintain weakened relatives?
The 28-year-old Lin Chuan has long been accustomed to weakening relatives.
He lived with his parents in Jishou City, Hunan Province since he was a child.
"My dad is not very engaged in social relations with relatives, values are not the same, and it takes a lot of time to talk too much." He said, "Due to my dad's influence, I have a weak concept of relatives, especially after moving (in the city), the distance has increased. Quite a lot, let alone no contact."
Yan Yunxiang, a professor of anthropology at the University of California (Los Angeles), conducted a 12-year field survey in his hometown of Xiajia Village, Heilongjiang Province.
He found that since the 1980s, the Chinese family model has shown an increase in "small families" composed of parents and unmarried children, and the "big family" composed of parents and married children is gradually disintegrating.
Nowadays, online chat is used instead of offline to meet, and it has become one of the main ways for relatives to communicate.
After Liu Fang's grandma moved into the city, it was not easy to meet with relatives. Her WeChat account was almost occupied by family groups and relative groups of various names.
Liu Fang looked at the party photos in the group chat from time to time.
Screening social interaction is Lin Chuan's criterion for relative interaction.
"Exclude relatives who make people uncomfortable, and leave relatives who speak and behave comfortably." Lin Chuan felt that the "root" that symbolizes family relations or kinship should just go with the flow. It’s a relative."
Fang Zhimei, a 52-year-old retired worker from Guizhou, said that juniors have their own circle of life, and it is more difficult for them to know each relative as they do. They can’t break contact (with their relatives) and don’t forget where their roots are."
Looking forward, let young people "root" themselves
In the eyes of some young people, kinship means "human relationships" that are unpleasant during the holidays.
Their cognition of relatives begins with blood relationship, but it does not produce a natural sense of intimacy and belonging.
Liu Wenrong told reporters from China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily that changes in society have led to a trend toward smaller families.
In the agricultural era, people were born and grew up in Sri Lanka. However, the huge reality that young people of this generation have to face is how to take root in the new urban environment.
Children in urban nuclear families have a closer relationship with their parents, while relatives outside the nuclear family have relatively weak identity.
This is especially evident in the post-80s who are entering middle age.
In 2010, Zheng Yu, a post-80s teacher, left his hometown of Changchun, Jilin, to study for a master's degree in Nanning, Guangxi.
Now, in order to settle in Nanning, he has bought a house and car with a mortgage, and he is also considering letting his parents come over to provide for the aged.
When he was in his hometown in Northeast China, all relatives of Zheng Yu's father's family left Changchun to live in Heilongjiang, and there was only one relative left in his mother's home.
With the death of the elderly of the grandparents' generation, there is less and less movement among the younger generations, and sometimes they can't get together during the New Year.
Although he is more concerned about whether he can take root in a new place, Zheng Yu said frankly, “Relatives are always relatives, and they don’t have to be together all day long to be called relatives.” He consciously communicates with relatives, such as when passing by Beijing or Harbin. When visiting relatives' homes, I often speak in family group chats.
"It's true that there are fewer contacts, but even if there is something wrong with a relative who hasn't seen each other in more than ten years, I will help me if I know it."
Liu Wenrong believes that the inheritance of filial piety of the younger generation in the current environment also shows obvious characteristics of the times.
For example, rather than rituals such as sacrifices and inheritance, they are more willing to share with their parents "good things" in health, fashion, and travel from their own understanding and preferences.
Under the framework of Confucian culture, East Asian societies generally regard the family network as a support network for personal development.
Then, the kinship maintained by the elders fades among the offspring, and the filial piety shifts from ritual to practice. Does it mean "rootlessness"?
Liu Wenrong said that it is not necessary to use this as a standard to assert whether a generation is "rootless."
"'Root' is not to look back, but to move forward and let young people take root. This is the problem we have to face in the process of modernization."
(At the request of interviewees, Liu Fang, Lin Chuan, Zheng Yu, and Fang Zhimei are pseudonyms)
China Youth Daily·China Youth Daily reporter Yin Xining Source: China Youth Daily