Let the family become a harbor for settling down life

China News Service, Beijing, October 17th. Title: Let the family become a harbor for settling down life.

China News Service reporter Cao Ziyun

In Yanyuan, where autumn is getting stronger, before the start of the 2026 "Happy Family Building Seminar", the participating teachers gathered in small groups and chatted about each other's current family situations. It was a pleasantries and a topic of common concern to them.

On the 16th, this seminar, jointly organized by the Department of Sociology of Peking University and the Women and Children's Committee of the Central Committee for the Advancement of Democracy, focused on the challenges faced by modern marriages and families: At a time when the concept of marriage and childbearing is constantly changing, how can the family remain a haven for settling down life and supporting each other?

Fertility intention is a topic of common concern to many experts. A survey covering young women in nine provinces and cities shared by Zhang Lei, deputy director of the Institute of Population Research at Peking University, showed that excessive focus on wealth accumulation has aggravated the life pressure of young people and, to a certain extent, has a negative impact on fertility intentions. Zhang Chunni, a permanent associate professor of the Department of Sociology at Peking University, is concerned about the impact of social media on fertility intentions. She suggests increasing scientific and positive health science popularization, optimizing algorithm guidance, strengthening universal support for postpartum recovery, and reducing the amplification of anxiety by short videos.

Building a fertility-friendly society requires multi-dimensional policy and educational support. Wang Zhengyan, dean of the School of Psychology at Capital Normal University and deputy director of the Central Committee for Women and Children for the Democratic Progressive Party, suggested that the cultivation of reproductive literacy should be integrated into college education; Xie Shuping, secretary-general of the Central Committee for Women and Children for the Democratic Progressive Party, suggested that systematic efforts should be made from the dimensions of supervision and rights protection to deal with problems such as implicit discrimination in recruitment and illegal avoidance of maternity leave; Zhou Hao, a professor in the Department of Sociology at Peking University, called for the family to be the basic policy unit for overall planning of population development, and "reproductive support policies should not just focus on childbirth."

Many mediators also combined practice to break down ways to resolve marital conflicts. Xiong Wugen, director of the Hongcheng People's Mediation Committee in Nanchang City, Jiangxi Province, lamented that today's marital disputes "are often caused by trivial matters such as looking at mobile phones after get off work and not doing housework, which trigger a rapid rise in emotions." In fierce confrontations, unseen emotions are often hidden. Wang Jun, a people's mediator in Xicheng District, Beijing, said: "Only by letting go of calculations of right and wrong and seeing each other's uneasiness can the deadlock be broken."

This year is the third year that the Women and Children's Committee of the Central Committee of the Democratic Progressive Party has carried out exchanges and suggestions on "happy families". Tong Xin, professor of the Department of Sociology at Peking University and director of the Women and Children's Committee of the Central Democratic Progressive Party, said: "In the face of a rapidly changing society, we will continue to work hard and bring together good experience at the grassroots level with academic research."

In her video speech, Li Malin, Vice Chairman of the Central Committee of the Democratic Progressive Party, hoped to transform the insights from the research into the results of political participation and contribute the wisdom and strength of the Democratic Progressive Party to promoting family construction in the new era.

"Although the family is small, it is never a small problem." Ye Jingyi, director of the Center for Chinese and Foreign Women's Studies at Peking University, said, "Building a happy family requires both emotional and institutional warmth. The voice of life must be heard in academic research, and practical experience can be used as theory."