Filial piety and traditional Chinese values: A study of high and mass cultures

Two studies were conducted, using indigenous materials stemming from both high and mass culture to construct measures of filial piety and other traditional Chinese values. In Study 1, data were collected from a sample of 666 participants (334 men and 332 women) with a mean age of 31.2 years from Taiwan and Hong Kong. In Study 2, data were collected from university students at different times, based on two samples in Hong Kong and another two in mainland China. The major findings are: (a) Filial piety is rooted more firmly in the ideal values of high culture than in the folk values of mass culture; (b) traditional Chinese values tend to be negatively associated with socioeconomic status; (c) ideal values are held much more strongly than folk values; and (d) among university students, there has been a moderate decrease in folk values in Hong Kong; but a moderate increase in folk values and a fairly large increase in ideal values in mainland China.