In traditional domestic environments, norms of gender segregation confined women to secluded inner quarters, limiting their power and authority within the home. In early twentieth-century China, however, the rigid Confucian patriarchal model was challenged by emerging middle-class ideals of the “small family” and reimagined notions of ideal womanhood and domesticity. Modern domestic spaces responded to the changing family structure and a new understanding of women’s roles, especially in urban contexts. Considering home and housing as cultural products, this chapter aims to examine the new idea of the family home and the relationship between gender and domestic space in mass media and literary works during this period. It explores the symbolic meaning of the home and how domestic spaces and interiors were perceived and envisioned through various cultural forms, including periodical articles, fiction, household advice manuals, photographs, and floor plans. Special attention is given to the living room in “small families,” emerging as a contested private space with semi-public characteristics. As the middle-class wife assumed the role of “lady of the house” in this idealized domesticity, the living room was increasingly represented as a female-dominated space, as demonstrated in domestic narratives by female writers. Ultimately, the study contends that homes in modern China constitute contested spaces in which the relationships between gender roles, identity, and space are constantly reconstructed and reimagined.