Essay about using ‘filial piety’ as an
Essay about using ‘filial piety’ as an example, explain how cultural practices/values change Introduction and background: When it comes to filial piety, it should be a complex concept with different meaning and value in distinct period and region. Dating back to the history of filial piety, Chinese Confucian is the most representative pillar which claims: A respect for the parents and ancestors. However, filial piety is not unique for Chinese. East Asia country like Japan and Korea also had the similar concept, which had been highly influenced by Chinese culture.
In some religion, Christian and Buddhism introduce some ideas of filial piety.However, the content of filial piety refers to be respect to elders, closed tied with family, and sense of obligation. In the past times, filial piety in main Chinese family emphasized and restrict in obedience to elders. For centuries, filial piety has guided the attitude and behaviors of parental care in China. However, in western countries, the main feature is to stress friendship on relationship between parents and children, besides love and respect. Since privacy and Independent are much more valued, filial piety seems to be redefined in western country ways.
With economy and technology highly advancing, culture value has faced great changes which also hit filial piety. Moreover, governments try to promote and perfect social welfare to elders in policies and laws. So the practice of filial piety is differentiated: Birth-death, social position, access to resources, adoption, abandoned, and so on. Filial piety is weakening in the relationship of subordinate between parents and children.
They are gradually standing in communication position to express their wishes to each other. Values and practices of filial piety is motivating with times changing.Central Argument Filial piety has entered into the transformation in family structure because of economy changes. Nowadays, people can earn a higher income and achieve economic independence. As a society I believe we have made rapid advancement of technology and economics, it has made us more progressive and personality than ever before. In industrial countries, the decision to live alone is often viewed as “a reflection of an economic demand for privacy or autonomy. ”(Becker 1981) In more and more developing countries, elderly parents start to live independent.
For example, ZhongShan elder residents became aware of living alone in Post-Mao period. Although they still received food supply by their sons to make a living, they desired for freedom and space in living arrangement. Nevertheless, this ZhongShan pattern was living separately more than living self-sufficiently.
Furthermore, in contemporary society, more and more elderly people are economically self-sufficient, and thus have the ability to live alone. They would rather purchase for independent space without children’s support. Political changes help filial piety reforming in its practice.
Thanks to aging society, governments devote more efforts to make a faithful guarantee for elders. Political policies become more consummate in welfare provisions for the elderly. Meanwhile, governments and organizations set up some elderly centers to give a community of elderly, and conduct some kinds of activity to enrich elders’ life. Elderly parents begin to have their own business not just circle around children and grandchildren.
They have access to social resources to rebuild a new lifestyle. For instance, in Japan, the generation of old and oldest-old reach a high level in recent a few decades.The life course for this group is important to Japan family and society. Rising to the forefront of public consciousness, Japanese government supports plenty of resources to build up the status of the elderly in Japanese society. Japan government raised the golden plan in 1989 which is now part of the national long-term care insurance system. And its measures specifically designed for social support, that is, programs to increase the social participation of seniors in the community, known as purpose of life policies, are not inclusive of the special needs of the very old.Our society with culture interaction and value converted, is suffering from huge transformation to family ties.
People are beginning to actively think about what they do and as more people choose alternative life, the traditions that surround filial piety will soon fall away. Our society moves to a more non-traditional world that emphasizes privacy and personal space. People no longer live in the past time where parents and children had unequal roles in life, and had different economic and social status. Not only elders want to be life independent, but the young demand privacy and the rise of individualism.Generation gap between elders and young is becoming deeper. Even living together, elders seem not to avoid sense of lonely. Elders are willing to have own time and not worry about chores in their sons’ homes.
Sons can share their burdens and both contribute to feeding the elders. Sometimes, living separately can remind son of becoming more filial and respectful. For example, a large percent of elders in Shanghai prefer to live without children. Elders have their own group in community owning their programs.
And they often have a tea gathering to share same interest and have a chat. Conclusion:Filial piety is updating and redefining itself during economy, political and social changes. The contemporary society highlights individualism.
The practices of filial piety turn to a new condition. The influence exerted by filial piety is declining though the value is still treasured as one that should regulate the behavior of the children towards their parents. The need for long-term care will rapidly increase, since populations are ageing faster Private institutional care is often the only form of long-term care service with minimal governmental resources since it is generally held that the family should provide necessary support.Home-based services are generally unavailable or in severely short supply, despite the fact that nearly all elderly people requiring long-term care remain in the community. Notwithstanding the diminishing role of the family, filial piety remains the most important source of support for elderly people requiring long-term care, and increasing state input is unlikely to be forthcoming in the near future. Reference:Ikels, Charlotte (Editor). Filial Piety: Practice and Discourse in Contemporary East Asia.
Palo Alto, CA, USA: Stanford University Press, E-library. Chow N. The practice of filial piety among the Chinese in Hong Kong, In: Chi I, Chappell NL, Lubben J, editors. Elderly Chinese in Pacific Rim countries: social support and integration. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press; 2001:125-36.
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