Chinese "Study Grandparents" (Gedai Peidu) in Secondary School Days: family strategy, intergenerational relations, and gender roles.

This paper examines grandparents relocating from their hometown to accompany their grandchildren in their secondary school years, a practice known as "gedai peidu" in contemporary China. This practice involves grandparents providing full-time care and support for their grandchildren, whom this study defines as "Study Grandparents." This research draws on two rounds of semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 12 participants across three generations: grandparents, parents, and former students who are now adults. It explores the motivations, practices, and impacts of grandparental peidu. The study demonstrates that peidu is not merely a pragmatic childcare arrangement, but a complex family strategy shaped by uneven educational infrastructure and strong cultural aspirations for educational mobility. Its prevalence in ordinary urban settings is enabled by moderate living costs and accessible educational resources. Rather than strictly following traditional gendered divisions of labor, this practice prioritizes grandparents' availability as the key determinant of caregiving arrangements. In terms of intergenerational relations, grandparental peidu challenges the traditional reciprocal relationship, strengthens emotional bonds across three generations, and reshapes the nature and practice of kinkeeping within the family.