China's Grandmothers

Gender, Family, and Ageing from Late Qing to Twenty-First Century

Diana Lary

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN:
  9781316513354
• eBook ISBN:
  9781009075244
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Asian History
• Index: History

Over the past century and a half, China has experienced foreign invasion, warfare, political turmoil, and revolution, along with massive economic and technological change. Through all this change, there is one stable element: grandmothers, as child carers, household managers, religious devotees, transmitters of culture, and, above all, sources of love, warmth, and affection. In this interdisciplinary and longitudinal study, China's Grandmothers sheds light on the status and lives of grandmothers in China over the years from the late Qing Dynasty to the twenty-first century. Combining a wide range of historical and biographical materials, Diana Lary explores the changes and continuities in the lives of grandmothers through revolution, wars, and radical upheaval to the present phase of economic growth. Informed by her own experience as a grandchild and grandmother, Lary offers a fresh and compelling way of looking at gender, family, and ageing in modern Chinese society.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title page
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• List of Tables
• List of Boxes
• Acknowledgements
• Preface
• Introduction
• 1 Precious Treasures
• 2 Archetypes and Images of Grandmothers
• 3 Baby Seekers/Baby Lovers
• 4 Child Care
• 5 Ruling the Roost
• 6 Old Age
• 7 Grandfathers
• 8 Transmitters of Culture
• 9 Absent Parents
• 10 Left-Behind Children
• 11 The Pleasures of Old Age
• 12 Leaving This Life
• 13 The Future of the Old
• 14 Personal Notes
• Afterword
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index