The Filial Child Revisited: Tradition Holds Its Ground in Modern Shanghai

Abstract

“When I was young, children had to wait until the adults sat at the table before they could even touch their chopsticks!” Ms Xu, a 55-year-old retiree and a volunteer at a local parents’ school, told me. “In the past, we Chinese paid great attention to matters of seniority and propriety…. We used to respect our parents and teachers. Now it’s all different. Why, these days, people treat children as if they were adults!”