Understanding the socio-cultural resilience of rural areas through the intergenerational relationship in transitional China: Case studies from Guangdong

Abstract

While rural resilience is considered valuable in global sustainable development and is gaining increasing attention, socio-cultural resilience in rural contexts has attracted limited scholarly attention. Intergenerational relationship as a crucial indicator of socio-cultural resilience and transformation in rural areas, is under-studied. Drawing on a qualitatively based and multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork in two villages in Guangdong, China, this article interrogates how rural residents understand and practice intergenerational relationship, further observing rural resilience from the socio-cultural perspective. The findings revealed the following: 1) changes in intergenerational relations in rural China are neither simple nor linear, but rather highly diversified and contextualized; 2) the status of intergenerational relationships in the villages is highly related to a series of external factors, including demographical features, economic condition and geographical location, etc.; 3) intergenerational relationships and the way rural families operate, interact, and are defined are closely related. Changes in intergenerational relationships not only reveal important shifts in the social and cultural makeup of rural communities, but they also serve as a significant indicator of the resiliency of both rural communities and families. This article, through those results, echoes the rising diversity of contemporary rural family life in China, arguing that intergenerational relationship provides a nuanced, humane perspective to probe social and cultural changes and rural-urban relations in rapidly urbanizing societies. We call for collaborative action to cultivate the positive intergenerational relationships, enhance the rural resilience from socio-cultural perspective, further contribute to the revive of countryside.