Summary

“Generation Gap: A study of Chinese family communication” written by Yam (1977) described the family relationship in Hong Kong. The author analyzed the Chinese family communication in terms of three aspects: affection, socialization, cognitive interaction and physical proximity. Firstly, owing to the different perception of two generations, the family communication between parents and children were very poor. However, children still concerned about their parents when they are sick, for example. Secondly, due to introducing of western education, children in Hong Kong misinterpreted freedom as disrespect. They tended to ignore their parents’ existence and were not appreciate their parents’ concern. Therefore, the parents were not able to communicate with their children very well. Thirdly, television might hinder communication between parents and the children since two generations could not reach an agreement over television programs or news. Fourthly, because some children only understood English while their parents spoke Chinese or dialects, the distance between two generations would grow naturally since they could not have a long discussion.
However, because Chinese still placed a high value on family life in spite of western education, social-cultural structures, the family communication was better than what children and parents thought.