Great Changes in Chinese Family Life

 

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Great changes have taken place in Chinese family life in the past 60 years. There have been great differences between our grandparents’ life and ours, not only in terms of house, but also in terms of food and so on.

With the development of economics, people’ living standard has improved greatly. When my grandparents were young, they lived in Chinese traditional rectangular courtyard and dressed in clothes whose quality was very bad, even worse, sometimes they didn’t have enough food. They made their lives difficultly. At that moment they dreamed of new clothes and enough food.

When my parents were young, life was better. They lived in the separate houses, but without any modern equipment. Although the quality of clothes became a little better, they still lived a hard life and some families were forced by necessity. According to my parents’ words, they couldn’t have new clothes in almost a year. Although they could eat wheat and rice, their food was still very limited, having meat was in their dreams. During their times, they also dreamed of TV set, telephone, big house and so on.

At that time women just stayed at home, dealing with some housework, such as washing, cooking, tidying. Therefore, to maintain the whole family become men’s own responsibility. Whether children went to school or not absolutely depended on economic condition of their family. In addition, parents could decide on when their children should stop their study without having school’s consent. That is to say, education didn’t draw great attention of people in those days.

What’s more, during that time family led a difficult and simple life. It would be pretty good when they possessed a TV set, a fan or a bike. Just with these could they feel so happy and lives with much contentment. Besides, they had much spare time gathering together to chat with each other and talk about some kind of things, problems in work or in daily life, something interest and so on. Then they were able to know each other well and get along well.

Nowadays, each family has at least one TV set and many have been equipped with telephones, computers, and even private cars. The senior members of a family watch films on TV at home and communicate with each other in Internet. We lived in buildings equipped with modern devices. Some students even have their own will with swimming pool, garage, garden and so on. My parents’ dream has come true and we live comfortably and happily without any anxiety about food and clothes. We can study in the comfortable house by computers, go shopping in the super-market by car, and spend holidays anywhere we want to, due to the development of the society.

Nowadays, women come to step into society and are becoming a member of profession field. Meanwhile, men are confronted with heavy stress from all directions, such as the fierce competition in work, high expenses of family. Now children all should accept compulsory schooling. If not, parents would probably be sentenced by law. To adapt themselves to this society of technology and knowledge, universities are very common to Chinese children now.

What’s more, the average standard of living nowadays is far higher than that one generation ago. However, what is really a pity is that now we only have limited time staying together to share everything. Then generation gap and controversy would come out, which can hardly be made up for. So it seems that being rich in physical enjoyment may not bring us mental contentment.

Great changes in Chinese family life have changed our lives. The changes also mirror the economic development of our country. Without the progress of the whole country, our family life would not have changed. Everything has two sides, changes are good but they also cause some problems. All in all, China is getting better now, our life is getting more comfortable now. Thanks to the changes, I hope that I can change my country into a better condition in the future.