当代中国工作生活节奏加快，传统家庭理念与现代生活不断交融，家庭模式悄然改变，但深厚的亲情内核始终未变。文章以在北京打拼的年轻母亲陆璐一家为例，生动展现孝道、代际互助等传统美德的传承。祖辈主动分担育儿重任，晚辈则以经济补贴和悉心照料回馈长辈，稳固的家庭互助网络，成为众多年轻夫妻平衡工作与育儿压力的重要支撑。
受人口流动、晚婚晚育、生育观念转变等影响，国内家庭规模持续缩小，传统大家庭逐步转变为小型核心家庭。不过数字通讯打破空间距离，让异地家人保持密切往来，反向春运等新形式，也让阖家团圆有了更多选择。随着老年人口不断增多，养老成为全社会关注的重点。各地大力推行互助养老，搭建社区居家养老服务体系，积极化解老龄化带来的挑战。针对年轻家庭育儿难题，国家相继出台多项生育友好政策，从住房支持、弹性工作制等方面发力，营造良好的婚育环境。
家庭形态与时俱进，国人珍视亲情、重视家庭的传统从未动摇。在各项政策助力下，传统家庭文化在新时代延续发展、焕发新生。
《北京周报》2026 年第 22 期刊发英文报道，带您解读当代中国家庭的发展与温情。
A mother and daughter embrace at a senior care service center in Qingdao City, Shandong Province, on May 10
The Ties That Bind
Many all over the world talked about inequality and child wellbeing, a theme chosen by the UN for this year's observance of International Day of Families, on May 15. Across China, however, the conversation centered on a national priority—promoting positive views on marriage and childbearing to build a birth friendly society.
In Shanghai's densely populated Putuo District, the day celebrating family had a futuristic twist. At a local library, an event titled AI Lights Up Happiness at Home showcased an AI powered parenting assistant that analyzes parent child conversations, reads emotional cues, and offers constructive responses. Meanwhile, in Beijing's suburban Yanshan area, the focus was on legal literacy, with neighborhood workshops on the family education law and anti domestic violence measures.
Traditional Chinese culture attaches great importance to family. Family values are deeply embedded in Confucian ethics, including filial piety.
Even with modern changes, many of these values persist, such as strong intergenerational bonds, support for elderly parents and the importance of family gatherings during festivals like Chinese New Year.
Every day is family day
Each month, on the 10th, 32 year old Lu Lu and her husband transfer 5,000 yuan ($735) to his parents, about one sixth of her family's monthly income. They call it “salary.”
Born in rural areas in Harbin, in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Lu and her husband are both working in Beijing, but they live across the provincial border in Yanjiao, a community in Hebei Province where rents are lower and life moves slightly slower than in the country's capital. Their 2 year old son spends his days with his paternal grandparents, who live in a small apartment Lu's family bought for them—a 10 minute walk away.
The arrangement is precise. The grandparents handle daytime childcare, plus some housework and cooking. “We tell them not to do too much,” Lu told Beijing Review. “They're both over 60. We don't want them to be exhausted. But they still clean the kitchen. They still mop the floors. They always say, ‘We're here anyway, we might as well.'”
To Lu, the so called “salary” is an expression of filial piety, the old Confucian duty of children to parents. For millennia, the Chinese family was understood as a fused whole—pooled resources, clear hierarchies and lifelong obligations. Parents raised children without a ledger. Children cared for aging parents without a price tag. The household was not a collection of individuals but a single organism, stretching across generations.
In China, it is common for grandparents to take on the job of raising their grandchildren.
A 2025 study by Weng Tangmei, an associate professor of sociology at Henan Normal University, analyzed data from the China Longitudinal Aging Social Survey, a national survey project conducted by Renmin University of China. The research examined how care and support flow between generations in rural families. The study found that a large proportion of rural grandparents are involved in caring for their grandchildren.
But that sacrifice does not go unrewarded. The study found that grandparents who help raise their grandchildren also receive more financial support and practical care in return. What stands out is that financial support is strongly linked to better long term physical health and short term emotional wellbeing for the elderly. In other words, giving money to grandparents actually benefits their health.
This helps explain why Lu and her husband insist on sending the monthly transfer and why her parents in law, who initially refused to accept it, now do. The money is a way of making their effort visible and acknowledging their contributions.
Lu and her husband both work demanding jobs with unpredictable schedules in Beijing. Overtime is routine. Without his parents' help, they would have no idea what to do with their son. He is too young to go to kindergarten full time, and hiring a nanny would cost nearly as much as Lu's monthly salary.
Daycare centers are not ideal options either. “He's so little,” she said. “I just wouldn't be able to relax knowing he was with strangers all day.”
Lu said many of her friends are in a similar situation. “If the grandparents didn't help, one of us would have to quit job. Or we would send our son back to our hometown, which means we would only see him during holidays. Neither option feels right.”
In this landscape, grandparents are not just a convenience. They are the only people many parents trust with their most precious possession.
It is also an economical choice for millions of young Chinese couples who need to work to pay the mortgage, save up for their children's education and support four aging parents.
“They are our safety net,” Lu said. “Without them, our whole life would collapse.”
Recognizing such struggles young couples have in rearing children, the Central Government has in recent years doubled down on its efforts to foster a birth friendly society, announcing new policies including strengthened support for families with multiple children to purchase homes and encouraging employers to adopt flexible working hours so that employees can better take care of their families.
When the helpers need help
But what happens when the grandparents can no longer lend a helping hand? This is the question millions of Chinese families are asking, including Lu's. Her father in law has high blood pressure. Her mother in law's knees ache, though she never complains. They are both in their 60s. In a decade, or maybe less, they will need care themselves.
By the end of 2025, more than 320 million people in China were aged 60 or above, accounting for 23 percent of the total population. This number is expected to exceed 400 million within a decade. As a result, senior care has become an increasingly pressing national issue.
China is racing to prepare. Most recently, in April, 11 government departments, including the Ministry of Civil Affairs, jointly issued a policy document to promote the development of mutual aid elderly care services, as the country steps up efforts to address the challenges of an aging population and meet the increasingly diverse needs of older residents and families.
The guideline defines mutual aid eldercare as voluntary, non profit services delivered through mutual assistance among neighbors or residents within villages and communities. It calls for developing community supported, home based mutual aid services, including the formation of volunteer teams to provide help with meals, hygiene, mobility and emergency assistance for seniors in need.
According to the document, by 2030, 70 percent of urban and rural communities are expected to be equipped with elderly care facilities capable of providing mutual aid services.
Supportive policies are a solid start to ease the nationwide senior care pressure. “It's good to know the government is thinking ahead. My in laws have each other and us for now, but it's comforting to see that communities are being prepared for when more help is needed,” Lu said.
Smaller but closer
According to the China Population Situation Report 2026 published by Zeping Macro, a company specializing in macroeconomic research and consulting founded by famous economist Ren Zeping, the average Chinese household has shrunk from 4.4 people in 1982 to 2.5 people in 2024. The once commonplace “four generations under one roof” family model is giving way to three person, two person and even single person households.
More and more young people are leaving their hometowns for work faraway and choose to live independently. At the same time, a declining desire to have children is also a major factor, according to the report. Marriage registrations fell by nearly 50 percent between 2013 and 2022, though a modest rebound appeared in 2025 after the government simplified the registration process.
This trend toward smaller households is not unique to China. Across the world, falling fertility rates, later marriage, higher rates of non marriage and divorce and increased migration have all pushed household sizes down, according to Zeping Macro. In Japan, the average household has about 2.27 people. In the United States, it is 2.53. In the Republic of Korea, it is 2.4.
Yet smaller does not mean less connected. Even as Chinese households shrink in size, the bonds between family members have, in many ways, grown tighter.
Digital tools further strengthen these ties. Video calls, instant messaging and group chats allow family members to share daily moments whenever they like, even when separated by hundreds of kilometers. Many young urban workers check in with their aging parents every day, a practice less common in traditional big families where coliving made regular checkups unnecessary.
This shift from physical co presence to intentional connection is also reshaping the most sacred of Chinese rituals: the Chinese New Year reunion. The 2026 Spring Festival travel season, from February 15 to 23, offered a vivid example.
While millions still journeyed to their hometowns, with over 2.6 billion cross regional trips made during the nine day holiday, a notable shift known as “reverse Spring Festival travel” is gaining ground. In the past, “family reunion” almost always meant young people studying or working in big cities going to great lengths to return to their parents' hometown. But now, that pattern is being reversed. Data from online travel agency Qunar.com showed that during the holiday, first tier cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen became the most popular flight destinations for travelers over 60. More and more elderly parents are now flying to the cities where their children work, bringing with them hometown flavors. The reunion no longer has a fixed geographic center. It happens wherever the family chooses to be.
英文采写：吕 岩
编 辑：万明子
责任编辑：季 风
设计排版：卢一凡
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