ROMEO I JULIA Z SHANGHAJU: CZTERY REPREZENTATYWNE HISTORIE MIŁOŚCI WE WSPÓŁCZESNEJ RODZINIE CHIŃSKIEJ
ROMEO AND JULIET IN SHANGHAI: FOUR REPRESENTATIVE STORIES OF LOVE IN CONTEMPORARY CHINESE FAMILIES

Summary/Abstract: Following paper presents most basic tendencies in social theory of marriage and family in Chinese contemporary society. Material and methods: It provides a brief description of how a traditional Chinese family works in context of Confucian philosophy and culture. Consecutively, four individual stories of anonymized interviewees are presented as carefully selected narrations representative for 40 individual interviews carried out in Shenzhen and Shanghai in 2019. Results: The conclusion of the paper suggests that society in China changes, but the traditional family in China remains strong. The cultural aspect and model of family and marriage works like a “double edged sword”. Sometimes it saves lives, sometimes causes tragedies. Conclusions: At the same time, it should not be criticized too easily through a biased, Westernized interpretation as well as it should not be perceived and taken just the way it is given by Chinese dominating culture – aka without considering negative effects it produces for young generations.

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