Demographic Transition & the Cultural and Social Differences in China

Demographic Transition and the Cultural and Social Differences in China
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Demographic Transition and the Cultural and Social Differences in China
The demographic transition in China has been one of the great social and economic transformations of our time, and it has produced a host of social and political effects. It has manifested itself in broad changes in the age, gender, and occupation of people entering the labor force; in rising life expectancy and reduction in infant mortality; and, in a variety of other ways. The demographic task is to explain what all of these changes mean and, particularly, why the extent of the change has been so dramatic, while the rates of change have been so varied.
Demographic transition is the process by which a society transforms from one composed almost entirely of small children and young adolescents to an adult, working society in which the majority of people are of working age. It usually involves increased labor force participation and a higher proportion of people in the working-age population who are of working age. The birth rate declines as people become more likely to delay childbearing and as the average age at first childbearing increases. The demographic trends that have shaped the modern Chinese family have changed over the past three generations. There have been implications, drawing on the theoretical and empirical literature on the topic, to argue that the demographic transition has led to broad changes in the culture and social norms in Chinese society.
The stages of the demographic transition are characterized by a reduction in birth and death rates and an increase in the proportion of people in the world who are of working age. This transition is associated with the spread of cities, the rise of industry, and the introduction of important social and economic changes beginning in the 19th century. These include the extension of the franchise, the rise of the public sector, the spread of education, the increase in longevity, and the development of the welfare state. Demographic transition is accompanied by social and economic changes, such as the development of urban societies, and the rise of the working class. The result of the demographic transition is a change in the size and age of the population (Perrin and Faustine, 2021). This leads to an increase in the size of the working-age population, which in turn leads to an increase in the size of the labor force and an increase in the productivity of the labor force.
The following are some of the key factors that have contributed to the demographic transition in China: the extension of the franchise, the introduction of mandatory schooling for all children, the development of industry, and the development of the welfare state. The social and economic changes associated with the demographic transition are embodied in the massive rise in the urban population and the accompanying rise in the consumption of urban goods and services. The demographic transition has led to an increase in the number of people living in cities in China and has also led to important changes in urban lifestyles (Chen et al., 2019). These changes are embodied in the transformation of cities into economic hubs and have aided China's economic development by 10% yearly since the communist party took control of the country. When the First Opium War ended, China was still a closed society, with most people living in rural areas. The government tightly controlled its new subjects and forced them to attend a government-run schooling system. Those who rebelled risked being put to death. During this time, the Qing government tried to enforce a policy of decreasing the birth rate by limiting access to contraception, adamantly opposing the use of modern birth control methods.
Looking at the history of the People's Republic of China, the demographic profile of China in the 1930s and 1940s was typical of those of other countries in the region at the time. A small number of the country's population was concentrated in urban areas (especially in Henan Province), most of which were located in the northeast of the country except for the large cities of Shanghai and Guangzhou (Chan, Kam, and, Yanning, 2019). The Chinese population was overwhelmingly rural in the 1930s and 1940s, and it remained so until the late 1960s. As late as 1953, half of China’s population lived in the countryside. The vast majority of rural dwellers were peasants, and lived on small plots of land, mostly in poor regions in the northwest or the mountainous provinces in the east. A more accurate term for “rural” was “countryside,” since the term more often referred to farmers living in villages than to the people who lived in towns and cities. From 1950 to 1953, the world’s population fell by about 3.5 million people, but after the mass Chinese famine of 1958-1961, this figure fell dramatically as millions of Chinese died of hunger. China’s food problem in the 1930s and 1940s became one of the most urgent issues of the decade, and it was addressed with an emphasis on population control. In the countryside, the government implemented social security measures such as the “iron rice bowl. The government also began the construction of the Great Wall and other projects to strengthen the country’s borders.
The culture of the 1930s and 1960s incorporated Confucian values of hierarchy and filial piety. The patriarchal social norms imposed by Confucianism influenced Chinese society in several ways. First, it was a strong cultural influence on the Chinese people. Regardless of one’s social rank, everyone agreed on t...