As daughters, as sisters: Sibling-relational intergenerational obligations and support in China

This article develops a sibling-relational account of intergenerational obligations and support, focusing on educated daughters in multi-child families. While existing scholarship has substantially advanced understanding of filial transformation in contemporary China, it often treats obligation as a parent–child settlement. I argue that in multi-child families obligations are inherently comparative and distributive, and that support is enacted through multiple forms that are unevenly recognized. The analysis draws on semi-structured interviews conducted in Shenzhen with 13 educated daughters from multi-child families. The findings show, first, how daughters justify and contest obligations through multiple moral logics: reciprocity, qinqing, shared parenthood, and justice. Second, it shows how daughters’ support practices are organized through sibling infrastructures that differentiate what each sibling can provide, and how heterogeneous forms of support become unevenly visible, valued, and credited within families. These dynamics produce a fragmented and contested terrain where patriarchal norms of value and recognition persist alongside emerging alternatives, resulting in ongoing negotiation over intergenerational obligations and support in contemporary China.