Reimagining the Asian Family in the New Millennium: Continuity and Cohesion, Resistance and Reinvention in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Asian Diaspora

This chapter continues a broad discussion of the conception of family as it is perceived across South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Asian diaspora. It provides a preamble to each of the chapters in the collection and, as in the first volume, considers a variety of approaches to the idea of family, including alterations to its traditional makeup and structure. The chapter introduces a range of political, legal, national, and gendered analyses and discusses what historical transformations families from these regions have experienced, are experiencing at present, and may undergo in the future.