LOSING FACE AND FILIAL PIETY

Filial Piety is an important aspect of Chinese culture.  It describes an "[emphasis on] respect, honor, loyalty, and obligations within the parent-child relationship" (Tsai, 1999).  Children are expected to take care of their aging parents, almost to a point of obeying without questioning.  They must: 1) support their parents, either financially or morally; 2) continue the family line; 3) obey and respect their parents, even after death; 4) self-sacrifice; 5) attend to parents at all times, especially when old or sick; and 6) honor parents and ancestors through good achievements.

This concept of filial piety, however, can prove to be detrimental to the elderly Chinese.  Since the elderly believe so strongly in filial piety and the fact that their children should be taking care of them in every aspect of their lives, they might be too ashamed or prideful to seek help from doctors or other healthcare professionals on their own.  Since filial piety states that children must attend to their parents at all times, they might feel that they would be losing face to discuss their own health problems with strangers; instead, they could feel that their children should be the ones to tend to them rather than professionals they do not know.

With the combination of filial piety and loss of face, children must be even more attuned and aware of their parents' health issues.  However, as younger generations become more Americanized, concepts such as filial piety become less of an importance; families where both parents have full-time jobs could mean that less time is spent tending to the elderly's every need.  As the children and grandchildren live their own lives, they would be less aware of the needs of their elderly parents and grandparents, so even when the elderly still believe so strongly that it should be their progeny who take care of them, if they do not voice their pain the busy family might not be able to pick up on the fact that they are in need of medical help.



SOURCES:

Tsai, Jenny Hsin-Chun. 1999. "Meaning of filial piety in the Chinese parent-child relationship: Implications for culturally competent health care." Journal of Cultural Diversity 6.1, p. 26-34

Olson, Laura Katz. 2001. Aging Through the Ethnic Lens: Caring for the Elderly in a Multicultural Society. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2001. 24, 27. Print.