Based on 13 months of fieldwork which was conducted among middle-class families in Beijing, this article explores young children’s daily bodily practices and juxtaposes these practices with discourses on child-rearing which have gained prominence in post-Mao China. The article aims to demonstrate that the new discourse on childhood, education, and child-rearing, which has been promoted by the Chinese government since the 1980s, does not always correspond to, and sometimes even contradicts, actual practices in Chinese families. The argument here is that this gap stems in large part from the dominant role of grandparents during the early stages of child-rearing, who tend to perpetuate values and practices, such as obedience and dependence, and to maintain a firm grip on the child’s body.
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