Power Triangle: Power Dynamics and Children’s Agency in Chinese Liushou (Left-Behind) Families

Migration may lead to changes in the power dynamics between children and adults in the family, and children may change their behaviour to exercise agency in response to migration itself and their circumstances. Along with the changing family dynamics and structure in contemporary China, including the transformed central value of Confucian familism—filial piety—and the increasingly child-oriented family, we need to rethink the capability of children in China and the roles they play in family and society. Guided by the social-relational framework, this study conceptualises Chinese ‘liushou’ (left-behind) children as active agents embedded in the rural multi-generational relationship system to explore how children navigate and negotiate their positions and roles within family power dynamics after their parents have migrated. Through eight months of ethnographic fieldwork in China’s Sichuan Province, including a combination of semi-structured interviews and participant observation, this study reveals that a new power structure has emerged in many Chinese liushou families due to the prolonged physical absence of parents. This structure consists of migrant parents whose authority is challenged, children who experience a vacuum of parental power in discipline, and grandparents who take on the role of disciplinarians. We conceptualise this power arrangement as a ‘power triangle’, offering new insights into restructured family relationships on a global migration scale. Unlike mainstream migration studies that largely focus on the binary relationship between migrant parents and children, the concept of the ‘power triangle’ includes caregivers in the power dynamics of liushou families, allowing us to move beyond a binary framework. It offers a more comprehensive understanding of the complex relationships and power dynamics among multiple participants within these families, including the liushou children, migrant parents, and substitute caregivers (grandparents). These relationships involve mutual influence and negotiation as each party seeks to achieve their goals while maintaining their bonds.