Chinese Familism in an Urban-Industrial Setting: The Case of Hong Kong

In the urban-industrial setting of Hong Kong, Chinese familism has taken the form of utilitarianistic familism. This new type of Chinese familism is characterized by: primacy of familial interests, perception of the social-political context as the arena for the pursuit of familial interests, utilitarianistic considerations in the structuring of intrafamilial relationships, the nonsignificance of the social status of the familial group, utilitarianistic recruitment of familial members and the resultant vagueness of the boundary of the familial group, and the dilution of authority relationships between familial members. To account for the emergence of utilitarianistic familism, three structural factors-Chinese immigration, institutional inadequacy, and socioeconomic development-are singled out and their relationship to utilitarianistic familism discussed. Finally, the theoretical relevance of utilitarianisticfamilism is elaborated by putting it into a comparative perspective.