For over 5,000 years of Chinese history, children have been at the cornerstone of the family. In fact, for many elderly Chinese, their children (and grandchildren)’s well-being and success is more important than their own. Instead of traveling, they sacrifice their retirement to help raise their grandchildren.
And children are expected to help their parents during their elderly years. As the saying goes, “raise a child to gain support when you get old (养儿防老).” Loneliness is a hard pill to swallow, so who wouldn’t want their grandchildren and children to visit them?
Yet, these attitudes are changing. An article in the South China Morning Post mentioned two in ten Hongkongers between the ages of 20 and 39 do not want to have children at all. In the Mainland, big cities like Shanghai, Beijing, Nanjing are experiencing the same trend. Birthrates in China are steadily declining every year.
Why are Chinese millennials saying no to motherhood?
Here is my take:
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