Culture in the framing of care in Chinese societies

East Asian institutions are designing different welfare strategies that in some cases put a significant proportion of care into families’ hands. At the same time, many of these strategies in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, and Japan rely on receiving migrant care workers, to varying degrees.

We seek to understand and analyze the different ways in which East Asian governments make use of religious associations for care delivery, and how discussions of traditional values are used to build national or regional caregiving programs.

Reference to the duty of caring for parents is particularly prevalent in Confucian values throughout East Asian societies. The promotion of selflessness in Buddhism is important in East and peninsular Southeast Asia. Other values such as social harmony and family solidarity are also key.

As we probe how societies are shaping care, we investigate questions such as: How are East Asian societies relating the development of care services to national development strategies? How are demographic issues of population ageing and skewed sex ratio affecting regional and domestic patterns of migration? To what extent are traditional gender roles and the ideas about care being reinforced by religious institutions? Are there common trends in all societies influenced by Confucian culture? What is the effect of traditions such as Taoism, Buddhism, and Christianity?

To answer these questions, we analyze the content of government publications, the internal publications of religious institutions, social scientists’ studies, and finally, policy debates in the media.

Refereed publications

• Hélène Piquet et André Laliberté. (à paraître, 2020). « Pourquoi légiférer sur la piété filiale en Chine ? », Droit et Société
• André Laliberté. (2017). “Responses to Abuse against Migrant Domestic Workers: A Multi-scalar Comparison of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Shanghai”, in Ito Peng and Sonya Michel, ed. Women, Migration and the Work of Care: A Multi-Scalar Approach to the Pacific Rim. New York: Palgrave-Macmillan, 2017, 115-142.
• Alex Payette. (2016). “Local Confucian Revival in China: Ritual Teachings, ‘Confucian’ Learning and Cultural Resistance in Shandong.” China Report 52(1), 1-18.
• André Laliberté. (2015). “The Politicization of Religion by the CCP: a Selective Retrieval.” Asiatische Studien / Etudes Asiatiques 69 (1), 185-211, January 2015.
• André Laliberté. (2015).“Religious philanthropy in China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong: the impact of state institutional trajectories.” Asian Journal of Social Science 43, 435-465.
• André Laliberté. (2015). “Religions and philanthropy in Chinese societies since 1978,” in Modern Chinese Religion: Value systems in transformation, edited by Vincent Goossaert, Jan Kiely, John Lagerwey, pp. 613-648; Brill.
• Alex Payette. (2015). “Renouveau confucéen et « care » : tension entre obligation et besoin.” Monde Chinois 1(41), 64-71.
• André Laliberté. (2014). “Religion and development.” In Emma Tomalin, ed., The Routledge Handbook on Religions and Global Development, 233-249. London, Routledge.

Non-refereed publications

• André Laliberté, “China: women migrants’ status leaves them open to abuse”, Case example for the WHO report No Care for the Caring: The Health Status of Female Migrant Care Workers and their Families, by Sonya Michel and Sarah Gammage, 201?
• Audrey Pascual (Master’s Research Paper) “A comparative study of the restrictions faced by migrant care workers in Hong Kong and Taiwan”, 2016 – Sep. 2017
• Lu Lu (Master’s Thesis) “A survey of legal and institutional constraints faced by migrants domestic workers in Guangdong province”, 2015 – Sep. 2017
• Zhang Youna (Master’s Research Paper) “Portraying ‘left-behind’ children in Chinese media”, 2014 – Sep. 2017
• Yannis-Adam Allouache (Master’s Thesis) “The Filipina and Indonesian waves of migrant live-in caregivers in Taiwan”, 2013 – Sep. 2017
• Wang Yishu (Master’s Research Paper) « Les obstacles dans la longue quête des travailleuses domestiques migrantes en Chine», Sep. 2013 –Sep. 2015

In progress

• Alex Payette. “Local Confucian Groups and Hospice Care provision: between ‘need’ and ‘obligation’.” (under review)
• Zhang Weiguo, Zhang Dong, and Zhang Qi. “Institutional Care of the Elderly in China: The Case of Beijing.” (under review)
• André Laliberté with Alexandre Syvrais-Galant. “From filial piety to migrant care-givers: the legacy of civic education under martial law in Taiwan.”