Fertility Policy and Family Change in China

[Abstract] Restrictive fertility policy has been one of the most influential public policies in the past three decades in China， and changes in the family may reflect policy effect at the micro level. This paper attempts to examine the impact of fertility policy on family change and explore its onset， process， pattern， and mechanism. Findings suggest that the state machine has strongly participated in the process of family change via “fertility control，” “quality promotion，” and their interaction， giving family change a strong overtone of policy intervention. The policy has reshaped external and internal family structure in various ways and made family change in China a shorter and more rapid process as a result of institutional intervention. While Chinese family has proved to be resilient to the destructive policy forces， higher share of elders， skewed sex structure of children， and backward shift of family life course all present tremendous challenges to sustainable development of Chinese family.