Thematic Keynote Highlights - Filial Piety in Modern Times: Timely Adaptation and Practice Patterns

Correspondence to Kyu-taik Sung, School of Social Work, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824, USA. Email: sungk@pilot.msu.edu

Abstract. In recent years industrialisation and urbanisation have weakened the willingness of adult children to care for their elderly parents. The results of the author's studies reveal that the majority of Korean adult children still value and practise filial piety in their day-to-day living. However, the way they express this cultural value has changed in the process of adapting to rapid and massive social changes. For instance many of them, due to job situation, schooling and needs to explore better opportunities, live separately from their elderly parents. In spite of this physical separation, most Korean adult children strive to practise filial piety in terms of affection, responsibility, family harmony, repayment, sacrifice and so forth. By expressing and practising these basic values using the telephone, letters, visitation and other tools for communication, they maintain close relationships with their elderly parents. The relationship between parents and adult children in Korea is transforming into a new type in which mutual respect and reciprocal care and support are considered more important than submission to the authority of the elderly.

Social values guide the perception and treatment of the elderly [1,2]. These values differ from one culture to another and cultural change has a significant effect on care and support for the elderly [3,4]. It is important, therefore, to have greater knowledge of differing trends in the provision of eldercare in dissimilar cultures.

Filial piety is a social value which has greatly influenced the parent care and parent-child relationship of East Asian peoples - Koreans along with Chinese and Japanese [5-9]. The traditional value of filial piety is reflected in the ritual and propriety of these peoples. Even minute details governing their family system and manners of daily living are touched by the value.

The practice of filial piety has traditionally been the natural duty and norm of adult children in Korea. In recent years, however, as Korea has undergone a major social change in the process of rapid industrialisation, concern over parent care has been growing. This concern necessitates a critical review of the practice of filial piety. The very definition of filial piety has become a public issue.

The author conducted a series of studies of Korean adult children's attitudes and behaviours toward parent care [9,10]. Results of these studies reveal that the majority of adult children still practice filial piety. However, the ways in which they express this traditional value have been changing. This paper introduces categories of filial piety identified and discusses needs for adjusting parent care practices to changing times, distant-living adult children and the practice of filial piety, social efforts for the preservation of the filial piety tradition, and cultural differences in attitudes toward elder respect and care.

What are the specific actions taken for the practice of filial piety? To answer this question, the author has identified a set of 12 categories of actions of filial piety [9,10]. Table 1 presents those categories in order of frequency and importance.

Table 1: Categories of actions and reasons for filial piety: comparison of rankings based on frequency and importance *

Categories	Ranking Based on Frequency of Actions a	Ranking Based on Importance of Reason b	Average Ranking c
Showing respect for parents	1 (88)	1 (4.78)	1
Fulfilling filial responsibility	2 (84)	1 (4.78)	2
Repaying debts to parents	3 (71)	5 (4.16)	4
Harmonising the family	4 (46)	3 (4.46)	3
Making filial sacrifice	5 (43)	6 (3.90)	6
Expressing love and affection	6 (41)	4 (4.37)	5
Expressing filial sympathy	7 (26)	7 (3.29)	7
Maintaining family continuity	8 (20)	7 (3.29)	8
Compensating care	9 (10)	10 (3.25)	9
Showing respect to other elders	10 (6)	9 (3.27)	9
Complying with religious teachings	-	11 (2.62)	11
Maintaining family honor	-	12 (2.41)	12

b: Importance based on the 5-point scale (5=most important ~ 1=not important at all)

Of the twelve action categories identified, six stand out: showing respect to parent, fulfilling responsibility for parent, harmonising family centering around parent, making repayment for debts to parent, showing affection toward parent, and making sacrifice for parent. It is noteworthy that all these categories are the virtues which Koreans have traditionally cherished. The rest of the categories have important cultural and moral meanings as well.

Each of the categories may reflect moral actions which demonstrate particular ways of caring for the well-being of the parent. Thus, filial piety is explained by multiple categories. In the description of the holistic meaning of filial piety, therefore, all of these categories would have to be considered, as they portray it in combination. Ideally, all of the categories should be practiced concurrently. For many adult children, however, it would be a challenge to do so because of constraints associated with their family, work situation and social environment. Cross-cultural research is needed to ascertain which of these categories might be universal and which might reflect ethnographic qualities specific to Koreans and other East Asian peoples.

Due to job situation, schooling and need to explore better opportunities, a growing number of adult children in Korea live distant from their elderly parents, who mostly remain in their old residence. In parallel with these changes, the increasing number of women are working outside the family; younger generations are preferring smaller families; and they tend to emphasise an individualistic life style. These changes among others seem to affect the ways in which filial piety is practiced. Traditionally, the son has been obliged to care for his parents by living with them. Today, adult children of both genders fulfil their filial duties to a growing number of parents who live in separate households for their privacy and convenience. The distant-living children most often practice filial piety by telephone, mail and visitation. A growing number of young people express respect and affection toward parents and elders in a more frank, open and friendly manner than their parents did. They tend to be more affection-oriented. In fact, affection toward parents was found to be the most important reason for filial piety in a study of young Koreans [11]. Traditionally, free expression of love and affection has been discouraged in Korea. This is indeed a remarkable change.

Koreans have complied with the principle of primogeniture and gender roles; the oldest son and his wife are socially expected to assume the caregiver role for parents. But, now all offspring - husband and wife and brothers and sisters - tend to share this role.

For so long, the practice of filial piety has been overly, if not intensely, family-centered. But filial piety is now conceptualised and practiced more expansively to cover care and services for elders in the community, eg. free lunch, free transportation, sightseeing tours, discount, homemaking, continuing education, free counselling, etc. Communities emulate each other in rendering such services.

In order to adapt to new social requirements in the changing society, modification of certain phases of the traditional value is necessary. For instance, moving from authoritarian and patriarchal relationships to egalitarian and reciprocal patterns of mutual help and respect between generations and between genders. Korea is well in the process of such changes.

Distant-living is a relatively new social trend, to which both adult children and elderly parents must adapt for better opportunities and the continuity of family prosperity. It is, however, a critical change which directly affects parent care and generational relationship. Despite such a change most Koreans do practice filial piety, adapting to changing social environments. The author has identified three typical patterns of practice of filial piety among Korean adult children: co-residence pattern, distant-living pattern, and community service pattern. One of these patterns is the distant-living pattern, wherein filial piety is practiced by adult children living separately or at distance from parent. Two vignettes depicting the practice of filial piety in this living pattern are introduced below.

Vignette I: An adult child and his wife living far away from parents. Mr Han (37) works for a firm in Seoul. His parents, retired teachers, live two hundred miles away. He could not change his parents' firm desire to remain in their old home. Due to his busy work schedule, Mr Han has not been able to visit his parents often. Every month he sends them pocket money. Three years ago, he opened a life insurance policy for his parents. Last year he set up a new telephone line for them. He calls his parents at least twice a week to inquire about their well-being. Communication relieves his anxiety somewhat. Two months ago, the elderly father had a heart problem, and Mr Han and his wife made two emergency trips to see their parents. Mrs Han spent a week there to nurse him. Last fall, she visited her parents-in-law and replaced the old heater with a new one. As the wife of the eldest son, she feels guilty for not being able to do more for them. She telephones regularly to check on their health, food supplies, housework, etc. Whenever Mr Han thinks about how his parents devoted their lives to raising him, his heart becomes filled with the emotional feeling of the debts he owes to them. Mr Han's two young children write letters and make phone calls to their grandparents, and spend vacations with them. Two weeks ago, the family made a visit to the grandparents to celebrate grandfather's birthday and spent three days with them. A few times a year, the grandparents visit the Hans. When the parents are with them, the Hans take them out to eat, to go shopping, and wherever they would like to look around. Mostly, they talk about things of mutual concern. The couple makes special effort to make their parents feel comfortable and happy. (Underlying filial piety categories: responsibility, affection, repayment, family harmony, sacrifice)

Vignette 2: A parent cared for in an institution. Mr Yoon (47) works for the town hall. It saddens him that his mother, who became a widow at a young age and sacrificed everything she had for him, now suffers from Alzheimer's disease. He and his wife thought the disease was simply due to old-age. So they continued their effort to care for her. However, for Mrs Yoon, caregiving became increasingly difficult; she began having dizzy spells every so often and her arthritis became much worse. One day, she heard from her family physician that her mother-in-law's ailment could be controlled to some extent if adequate treatment was given. She delicately suggested to her husband that they place the mother in a home specialising in caring for demented patients before her condition became worse. She took special care not to offend him. Traditionally, it is considered unfilial to institutionalise one's parent. Mr Yoon took her suggestion seriously, taking into account that his mother's condition might improve if adequate care was given and that his wife suffered from the pressure of having to care for her. He reluctantly agreed. A few days later, the couple visited several homes for demented patients and chose one which had the best facilities and staff members. In the past three months, the Yoons have visited their mother every week at the home which is two hours away from their house. The couple substantially cut back their living expenses to pay for the home. They are pleased to see that their mother receives proper health care and humane treatment at this home. Mrs Yoon's condition is gradually improving. Mr Yoon is praying that his mother returns home before long and lives more closely with him and his family. (Underlying filial piety categories: responsibility, sacrifice, respect, family harmony.)

As the above vignettes show, children practice filial piety despite living far away from their parents. Multiple categories of actions of filial piety are practiced at the same time, including respect, responsibility, harmony, repayment, sacrifice and affection. In practice, an adult child might have given more emphasis to certain categories of filial piety action while giving less to other categories for tactical and situational reasons.

Better filial conduct beyond these essential and fundamental types of filial piety actions, could hardly be demanded from adult children living distant from their parent. The vignettes reflect adult children's effort to practice filial piety in adaptation to social changes. The ideal of filial piety is upheld; only the ways of expressing it have changed.

The decline of parent care has impact not only on the welfare of the elderly but also on the nation's fledgling social welfare system. In recent years, the social concern over eldercare has necessitated nationwide efforts to preserve the filial piety tradition under joint public and private auspices, eg. the establishment of filial piety prizes; Respect for Elders Day and Respect for Elders Week; the enactment of the Senior Citizens' Welfare Law and the Filial Responsibility Law; the provision of health and social services for elders; the establishment of a nationwide web of seniors' centers and seniors' colleges for continuing education and recreation, and the holding of campaigns and events for respect and care for elders. Filial piety is the keystone of these social efforts.

The filial piety prize was established first by the Korean government in 1973 and is awarded annually to about 250 highly filial persons. The broad goal of the prize is to preserve the value of filial piety, a cultural tradition of the nation. The immediate objectives are to commend the exemplary parent-caring practices of the prize recipients and to influence others to follow such examples. Along with this public prize, the two largest corporations in Korea, Samsung and Hyundai, also award filial piety prizes annually to individuals, groups and organisations which have rendered exemplary care and services to parents and elders [12 p.104]. Various local associations also award similar prizes.

At home, Koreans still teach that children must revere their parents, teachers and elders, although in a less intensive manner than in the past. Educational influence comes also from outside of the family. For instance, the performance of filial piety by exemplary children is widely publicised via mass media and educational channels. It still largely remains in the Korean cultural context as the most important value that regulates young generations' attitudes and behaviours toward parents and elders, and influences public policies for the treatment of the elderly.

The resurgence of social concern over filial piety, and the increased social effort to exhort the ideal, reflect the resilience and adaptability of Korean people, with which they respond to the challenges of social changes. Korea embodies the relative commitment to two divergent values. One is the traditional value rooted in filial piety which is associated with family-centered informal parent care. The other is a new value of public commitment to the provision of formal services for the elderly. Thus, the nation needs to continue to expand public services while retaining the cultural tradition that has had valuable results in the integration of the elderly with family and society.

The author compared two sets of data on motivation for parent care focusing on cultural traits associated with parent care: one set about Koreans and the other on Americans in their respective cultural contexts, who have cared for their elderly parents and relatives. From this comparison, specific forms of filial motivation were identified, some of which were country-specific while others were cross-culturally equivalent [13].

The Koreans' outstanding reasons for parent care were affection, repayment, respect, responsibility, harmony and sacrifice, whereas for the Americans, they are responsibility, affection and repayment (see Table 2).

Table 2: Reasons for parent care: comparison between American caregivers and Korean caregivers

Kind of Reason	Americans a N=203 Rank (%)	Koreans b N=226 Rank (%)
`Responsibility`	`1 (58%)`	`4 (65%)`
`Affection`	`2 (51%)`	`1 (80%)`
`Repayment`	`3 (17%)`	`2 (75%)`
`Respect for Parent`	`-`	`3 (74%)`
`Family Harmony`	`-`	`5 (58%)`
`Filial Sacrifice`	`-`	`6 (24%)`

Given these reasons, one can easily notice that the Americans do not include respect, family harmony and sacrifice. Thus, those reasons which are common to both parties are affection, responsibility and repayment. These findings reflect a similarity in terms of the common human nature and a difference in terms of the cultural orientation. Compared to the Americans, the Koreans tend to be more embedded in a web of extremely close emotional relationships with their family members [15]. In such a web, they practice filial piety, the core of which is reflected in the reasons for filial piety, including respect for parent, family harmony and filial sacrifice - the three reasons which the Americans did not cite. Koreans' orientation toward family cohesiveness and dedication of self for family well-being further enhances filial piety, the ideal of family-centered parent care.

Of the three motivation categories which Americans missed, respect for parent was given a high ranking in terms of importance. In the teachings of filial piety, respect for one's parents and all elderly persons is the most stressed point. Respect for elders remains the essential element in maintaining the status of the elderly and their integration into the family and society.

Streib [2] identified a major difference between China and the US in terms of the respect for elders naturally and habitually expressed by Chinese people. He termed this cultural trait as `automatic respect.' Chow's [6] finding in China basically supports this view. In Japan, as Palmore and Maeda [7] report, respect for elders is rooted in the basic social structure of Japanese society. They termed this phenomenon `residual respect.' Meanwhile, Korean children learn through conditioning and socialisation how to behave courteously and respectfully toward parents, elders and teachers. The use of honorific language and the exhibition of courteous manners widely observed among Koreans in addressing elders are behavioural expressions of that propriety. Although some extreme expressions of respect have been modified, the moral value associated with respecting elders has not been greatly undermined in the process of social change in Korea. The author would term this Korean case of respect as `socialised respect'.

These obvious cultural phenomena largely approximate the continuing influence of the value of filial piety in the East Asian nations. The terms automatic respect, residual respect and socialised respect are generally missing in the Western world. It seems that the vast majority of East Asians still have substantially more respect for their elders than do most peoples in the West. Thus, in this key value, there still exists difference between the East and the West.

Throughout East Asia, changes are taking place. But the influence of the tradition persists. In China, particularly in urban areas, young persons tend to have negative opinion about respect and support for the elders, and they prefer to maintain an independent lifestyle [16]. Despite the change, the traditional value is upheld in China as in other Chinese communities including Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore [17-20].

In Japan intergenerational relations are becoming more affection-based, convenience-oriented and free from the norm of filial piety than they used to be. But Japanese people have been rather firmly maintaining their traditional patterns of co-residence and the family care of aged parents [21-23].

In Korea as well, modification is in progress. Some extreme expressions of respect are being modified. A growing number of adult children live distant from their parents. They fulfil their filial duties by telephone, visitation and mail. The young express respect and affection toward parents and elders in a more frank, open and friendly manner than their parents did. Filial piety, which has been overly family-centered, is now practiced more expansively to serve elders in the community. Despite these changes, Koreans still do respect their parents, teachers and elders, although in a less intensive manner than in the past. Foregoing descriptions suggest that an emerging trend in East Asia is to re-stress the traditional ideal of reciprocity between generations.

Filial piety is, in fact, a value which espouses mutual respect and love between parents and children, husbands and wives and siblings. T'oegye (Yi Hwang), a towering figure in Korean Neo-Confucianism, taught that the love of parents for children is out of mercy and that piety of children for parents is filial piety [24,25 p307]. The aim of his philosophy can be found in his devotion to reverence. Reverence to him meant the practice of mutual respect and love [25,26]; the practical meaning of reverence is the ideal of children respecting for their parents and parents being benevolent toward children. What is stressed in this teaching is the reciprocal relationship between parents and children.

The reconstruction and modification of the ways in which filial piety is practiced would have to proceed in line with this classical teaching.

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