专题 14中国文化读写专项：中国家庭- 2024年高考英语常考中国文化读写专练+素材积累

Lesson 2 Chinese Family 中国家庭 Family is the cell of the society, and rulers of past dynasties all paid great attention to the stability of families, which affected the stability of the society and the ruler’s system of government as well.  In the Past The Chinese family as it is described in the Story of the Stone (hong lou meng, Qing dyansty) is the result of a long historical development. The Chinese for "family" is Jia, which generally means the basic family group, those who are related by blood, marriage, or adoption, living and managing their finances together. In a Jia, the males are all blood relations. Sons live in their father's house with their wives, who have been brought in from outside the family. As soon as daughters come of age, they are married out, that is, they join another Jia. They are members of their parents' Jia only as long as they are unmarried. During the wedding ceremony, daughters officially end their ties to their father's patriline, and are promised to serve their new family, including its ancestors. Males are permanent members of the family they were born into; females, however, are expected to eventually leave their born family. Women, therefore, belong to a place in a patriline -- that of their husband, not their father -- when they give birth to a son. The Jia shares living space and finances. One male, the patriarch (the oldest competent male) has the most authority in all family matters. In the ideal Jia, three, four, or five generations live under one roof. Sons obediently follow their father's direction in choosing a career and a wife, and every member of the Jia works together for a single aim: keeping and increasing the Jia's wealth and status. Such a large, multi-generational Jia can grow to be very complex. For women and children, especially in the large, wealthy, elite families, the Jia was essentially both the center and the limit of the world. The wealth, reputation, and status of the Jia, however, rested largely o