Topic: Familism 
Lecturer:Prof. Sheng Hong 
Discussants:Prof. Zhang Shuguang, Prof. Zhang Xiangping, Prof. Chen Ming, Prof. Zhao Nong, Prof. Mao Yushi, Prof. Han Chaohua  

 
At the 350th Unirule bi-weekly symposium, Prof. Sheng Hong delivered a speech entitled“Familism”.

Before the lecture, Prof. Zhang Shuguang, Chairman of the academic board of Unirule gave his congratulations to the 350th issue of Unirule Bi-weekly symposium, a project organized continuously for 14 years since its establishment.
Prof. Sheng first gave his own definition of Familism--a subject that was first studied by Gary Becker fifty years ago. In terms of economics, so-called “Familism” is that family not individual act as the basic unit for calculating costs and benefits. The difference between familism and individualism is where the fundamental difference between traditional Chinese society and Western society lies, since the former is a familistic society while the latter is an individualistic one. The very difference between individualism and familism is that, (1) Familism regards life as being unlimited, while individualism regards life as limited; (2) Familism doesn’t see each one equal and independent like the individualism does, instead it weights each one in the context of her family. Then the conclusions we derived under the standard individualist assumption would change a lot under the familism approach. Calculating costs and benefits using family as a unit, maximization of family benefit would not simply equal to the summation of benefits of each members of a family as what was done under the individualism approach. Since a family has infinite longevity in theory, to ensure a family can last and prosper over time will become the top priority. Based on the nature of the familism, a familist society such as traditional China had evolved through a different path from an individualist society like Western Europe. Today’s China has its own unique economic, political and cultural structure.
Prof. Sheng then gave the basic principles of familism: (1) Family is prior to property rights and the rule of law acts as the very foundation of society; (2) People tend to apply the rules within family to the society; (3) The essential principles of constitutional government are derived from the primary principle of family norm.
At the end of the speech, Prof. Sheng gave his perspective of familism. He argued that in given time there be a familism framework which will parallel with the existing individualism approach. Such a familist approach will expand the territory of economics and provide new explanations to Chinese, even world history.