Browsing by Subject "lapsen asema"

Objectives. The objective of this master’s thesis is to examine child’s role in Chinese family structure by reflecting through children’s stories. The motivation for the thesis originates from increasing multiculturalism in societies, which is conveyed to encounters with children from different backgrounds. International story crafting provides information about the lives of people living in different environments (Karlsson, 2014, 123, 118, 123), that is used as medium to increase understanding of role of a child in China which in general is poorly known and understood (Haw & Kankaansivu, 2015, 11). According to Alanen (2009, 12, 22–23), public debates worldwide have raised concerns about shortening of childhood or, at worst, its early end. However, in these discussions, the primary focus has been around child’s inner circle such as parents and teachers instead of the child itself. The involvement of children and their own voices have largely been underheard (Alanen, 2009, 12, 22–23) and therefore the purpose of this thesis is to get an understanding of child's position in a family through children's voices and stories. Methods. This thesis is qualitative research where which is conducted by using content analysis as the research method. The objective the content analysis was to outline main themes which are analyzed in detail in the thesis. The literature consists of 38 stories made by Chinese children which have been collected in a kindergarten in Hunan Province, China in 2010. The children ranged from 3 to 5 years of age. Eighteen stories were collected from 5-year-olds, seven stories from 4-year-olds, and eight stories from 3-year-olds. The story crafting was conducted in Chinese, and the stories were translated to Finnish in 2011–2012. In story crafting method, an adult records a story told by a child just as the child has told it (Karlsson, Lähteenmäki & Lastikka, 2019, 37). Results and conclusions. The role of mothers was highlighted in the children’s stories. Mothers acted as a cook, caretaker, and authority. Fathers were mentioned only in four stories. Studies in China have found that the role of the father in raising children is minor (Wu, An & An, 2013, 304, 310) and in the light of the literature study, it appears that fathers have been overshadowed by mothers. Siblings and grandparents played also lesser roles. Playing with parents came up as a common activity. Compared to Western childhood, childhood in China is short and it is evident that the childhood in terms of fairy tales and play often ends at the start of school (Manninen, 2016, 103–107.). Fear of abandonment came across as a general emotion in children’s stories in relation to the family. There are an estimated 200,000 “left behind children” in Hunan Province, meaning that parents have moved to cities in pursuit of a better life (Suomen lähetysseura, 2021). The importance of childhood should thefore be acknowledged as valuable period of life.