Chinese Voices Project: Friends and Family

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A Modern Chinese Wedding (1.0 / 490)
Joanna Hsu
    While each couple adds their own personal touch to the ceremony, every exchange of vows is accompanied by jovial toasts, parental tears, and lots of hong bao all around.

 

Sons and Daughters (1.1 / 475)
Joanna Hsu
     The one-child policy is often ignored by the urban elite, for whom a larger family is a sign of status and a son a social necessity.

 

The Child Who Never Returned (1.1 / 385)
Joanna Hsu
     When career comes before family for parents, it's the children who stand to lose.

 

Taking Care of Daddy (1.2 / 325)
Joanna Hsu
    Aging parents in China can count on their children to help look after them. They've sometimes got their own ideas, though, about how to spend their leisure time.

 

Looking for Love Online (1.4 / 406)
Lynn Long
     Dating websites have become very popular in Beijing, where posting the right kind of personals ad can yield dozens of replies within minutes. Whether their interest is the kind you're looking for is another question altogether.

 

Trouble with the Inlaws (1.4 / 257)
Chun Juan
    A familiar source of tension for married couples can take on a new intensity when both partners are from single-child families.

 

Going Home for the Holiday? (1.4 / 712)
Joanna Hsu
     This can be a depressing question in Beijing, where a chronic shortage of train tickets makes it difficult for many residents to get home for Spring Festival.

 

Will You Be My Valentine? (1.5 / 291)
Emily Fang
     Valentine's Day is catching on in Beijing as a favorite holiday for lovers, merchants, and chocolate addicts. Though the American rituals are making a big splash, they do have traditional counterparts in China and Japan.

 

The Gay / Lesbian Scene in Beijing (1.4 / 262)
Emily Fang
     Attitudes towards homosexuality are rapidly becoming more accepting in China's major cities. Bars catering to "comrades" and "lalas" abound. For foreign visitors, though, the social rules may take some getting used to.

 

No Wedding in a Widow Year (1.5 / 497)
Yang Qiong
    A quirk in the lunar calendar makes this an inauspicious year for getting married, and many couples rushed to tie the knot before New Years Day. Their friends may wonder, though, whether such haste will bring good fortune in the end.

 

The Meaning of Love (1.6 / 442)
Lynn Long
     The thought of a single woman adopting a child might strike many in China as odd--at least until they heard her reasons.

 

Memories of Tomb Sweeping Day (1.6 / 428)
Joanna Hsu
     Expectations of filial piety in China extend after a parent's death. Their fulfillment in the rituals of Tomb Sweeping Day can make a lasting impression on the children who are brought along to take part.

 

Responsibility (1.6 / 497)
Lynn Long
     Your aging mother is working in a Mahjong parlor for $65 per month and could really use some of that money you've put aside for your college education. What do you do?

 

Chinese Lantern Festival (1.8 / 342)
Joanna Hsu
     This favorite festival of Chinese children can be a bittersweet experience whose lanterns aren't quite up to snuff.