Journal of China in Global and Comparative Perspectives

Abstract: It is interesting to compare rural families and family property in China and in Japan. The family (ie) in Japan is an entity mainly concerned with farm production, and it is made up of elements such as the family name, family property, family business, family status and ancestral sacrifices. The family property is exclusive (it is inherited by the eldest son alone) and perpetual. In contrast, the Chinese family (jia) is mainly concerned with continuing the lineal blood relationship. Family property, as the economic support base for the family, is in principle inherited equally between brothers. However, in the case of Kaixiangong Village Area 13, cited in this paper, family property seems to be treated similarly to family property in Japan. For example, in multi-son families of the 1970s, to avoid dividing the family property, only one son inherited it, while other sons married and moved in with their wives’ families. Although this system appears similar to the Japanese family property system, it is essentially different in nature. This paper, taking Kaixiangong Village as an example, focuses on housing, both as a unit of living and as part of family property, and analyses the process of change in rural families and family property in Southern Jiangsu Province from an historical angle. Observation of the change in housing in Kaixiangong Village over the past hundred years reveals that the division of family property was limited, and the growth in the economic accumulation of individual families led to a steady increase in family property.

Keywords: rural families, family property, Sino-Japanese comparative studies