Chinese People’s Child Bearing and Rearing Beliefs: The Interplay Between Confucianism and Neoliberalism

Abstract

Previous research on Chinese people’s child bearing and rearing beliefs (CBRBs) has overwhelmingly focused on how Chinese view specific issues about child bearing and rearing and shown Confucian and neoliberal perspectives on these issues. However, limited studies have adopted a holistic view to analyze Chinese people’s CBRBs and explored the influence of the interplay between Confucianism and neoliberalism on their CBRBs comprehensively. This study aimed to bridge this gap by examining 2,590 pieces of posts (microblogs published by users) containing the hashtag “#The proper beliefs about child bearing and rearing#” on Weibo, one of the most popular social media sites in China. Corpus analysis and reflexive thematic analysis methods were used to quantitatively and qualitatively analyze the data, and five themes with various subthemes about Chinese people’s CBRBs were generated. This study uncovered that the three themes, namely, Parenthood Is Optional, How to Raise Children and Rewards of Child Bearing and Rearing, reflect an integration of Confucianism and neoliberalism, while Blind Compliance (to Parents’ Demands) Is Not Advisable and Costliness to Women show a neoliberal perspective. The findings enhance the understanding of Chinese people’s CBRBs and the influence of the interplay between Confucian and neoliberal cultures on their CBRBs, and provide insight for all concerned to improve fertility and health care programs.