In the mapping of the field, I mainly unpack how the elderly and the transformation of the family have been understood and theorized in three strands of scholarship: (a) mainstream Chinese family studies, particularly in sociology; (b) reflexive modernity literature on individualization and emotional intimacy; and (c) critical schools relating to the Chinese family, including but not limited to labour, gender, and media studies. By underscoring these three strands’ merits, gaps, and limitations, I aim to position my approach in the field and pose my research questions in a theoretical informed manner. I highlight mediated emotions among the rural elderly as the scholarly gaps focused in this thesis in particular. Finally, I turn to my own theoretical framework and method design, which employs Raymond Williams’ “structure of feeling” as well as the concept of “mediation”.