Time: 12:30 – 14:00

Venue: Room G01, G/F, Hui Yeung Shing Building (HYS G01), CUHK

Speaker: Prof. Yingchun JI, School of Sociology and Political Science, Director of the Women’s and Gender Studies Center, Shanghai University

Moderator: Prof. Susanne Yuk-ping CHOI (Professor, Department of Sociology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong; Co-Director, Gender Research Centre, CUHK)

Abstract:

This presentation is based on the first chapter of my forthcoming book, which explores family reinstitutionalization in contemporary Chinese society. Specifically, it examines the transition of the traditional patriarchal, patrilineal Chinese family into a modern bilateral, biaxial, and multi-nucleus family pattern. First, I will introduce the concept of mosaic modernity and explain how to understand it at three levels: the daily life level, the institutional level, and the historical level of Chinese society. I will further demonstrate how mosaic modernity is both connected to and different from Western modernity and “compressed modernity” proposed by Kyung-Sup Chan. Second, I will discuss the mosaic familialism theory and introduce three key daily life logics underlying this emerging family pattern: the rising mother-daughter oneness versus the father-son oneness in the traditional patriarchal family; the relay race of caregiving by intergenerational women from bilateral families; and traditional-modern mosaic of gender and family norms. Throughout the presentation, I will introduce these indigenous concept and theory and share concrete cases to illustrate their relevance to contemporary Chinese families and society.

Speaker’s Biography: Yingchun Ji is a professor in the School of Sociology and Political Science and serves as the Director of the Women’s and Gender Studies Center at Shanghai University. She earned her Ph.D. from the Department of Sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Ji’s research interests encompass family sociology, gender studies, social demography, and the exploration of modernity within China and across East Asia. Her current projects delve into the evolving institutional landscape of Chinese marriage and family. Beyond empirical research, Dr. Ji has been committed to formulating localized concepts and theories to elucidate transformations in gender, family, demographic shifts, and the modernization process in China. Her theoretical contributions include the development of concepts/theory such as mosaic modernity, mosaic familialism, and mosaic gender ideology.

Language: English

Registration: https://cloud.itsc.cuhk.edu.hk/webform/view.php?id=13716471