China's Grandmothers

"China's Grandmothers looks at the lives of women who once dominated Chinese families, and contiue to exercise major influence. It covers periods of tumultuous change from the late 19th Century to the present. Grandmothers cared for their grandchildren, managed the family economy and transmitted popular culture. They have their grandchildren boundless love and emotional security. In traditioanl China the lives of women were lived on an upward trajectory: temporary members of their natal families; married in their teens; young mothers under the thumb of their mothers-in-law. Becoming grandmothers made them powerful in their families. The trajectory has flattened, but grandmothers still play major roles in their families. Many care full-time for their grandchildren, notably the seventy million left-behind children of labour migrants. Without this low-cost care China's economic boom, which depends in part on low wages, would not have been possible. The book is illustrated with pictres and photographs, and with Chinese proverbs and sayings"--