Zhou Xiao-Hong
Department of Sociology & Institute for Social Psychology Nanjing University
Cultural feedback is a new model of parent-child transmission that emerges in a time of drastic social changes. Based on this model, this paper thoroughly discusses the impact social-cultural changes have on the present-child transmitting or content and form of socialization inside family. The study demonstrates: (1) In a time of drastic social changes, reverse- socialization between parents and their children or “cultural feedback” not only has arisen, but also has become a new model of cultural transmission as opposed to the traditional model. (2) “Cultural feedback” covers a wide range of fields, from selection of values, acceptance of life attitude, formation of social behavior model to knowledge and use of new implements. The phenomenon is especially obvious in the surface of culture (behavior and implements facets). (3) Children’s capability to feedback their parents in culture or their rhetorical power mainly comes from their higher sensitivity and acceptability to new things, less restriction from tradition, the subsequent convenience of gaining social messages from media, advertising, markets, peer groups and life itself, and their authority in explaining the meaning of life (due to their advantages in using language and implements). (4) “Cultural feedback”, on the one hand, shakes the position of the senior as superiors, and brings parents into constant rebellion and challenge from their children. On the another hand, it also enhances the former’s ability to adapt to the changing society.
Keywords: cultural feedback, transition of parent-child, changing society