On the path of modernization most societies go through what demographers call "fertility transition", the change from large to small numbers of offspring. In an overpopulated world, few social facts are more important to understand than the local causes of fertility transition. This project by anthropological demographers at the University of Washington enhances our incomplete understanding of the fertility transition in China. It studies how socioeconomic, cultural forces have produced a particular pattern and process of fertility change. The project will establish the late imperial Chinese demographic regime, then examine fertility changes in the 20th century. The project will focus on lineage populations in Xiaoshan county, Zhejiang province. It will select lineage populations representing different local environmental variations, levels of economic development and economic specialization. It will conduct a family demographic history survey of current lineage populations as a means of studying fertility processes in the 20th century. Ethnographic and archival research will also be conducted to provide a sociocultural context as well as data on local customs pertaining to demographic processes. This project, designed to collect a combined set of survey, genealogical, ethnographic and archival data, can contribute to an in-depth understanding of the trajectories and sociocultural mechanisms of Chinese demographic change.
