Starting this year, National Grandparents’ Day will be celebrated on the fourth Sunday of August, the Ministry of Education said.
The designation of Grandparents’ Day, which falls on Aug. 29 this year, is also aimed at strengthening relationships between younger and older generations to facilitate the integration of traditional and modern cultures and promote intimacy among family members, the ministry said.
Officials said the last Sunday of August was chosen in the hopes that grandparents will observe the day together with their children and grandchildren before schools reopen in September after summer vacation.
To raise public awareness of the day, family education centers in various cities and counties around the country will sponsor summer camps for grandparents and grandchildren.
In related news, a recent survey on transgenerational interaction and relationships showed that 80 percent of grandparents interviewed could easily list the names of each of their grandchildren.
In contrast, only 36.7 percent of grandchildren responding to the poll could list the names of their grandparents, and 10.3 percent said they were totally unaware of their grandparents’ names.
In Chinese culture, grandparents often call their grandchildren by their names, while grandchildren use the terms for “grandmother” or “grandfather” when addressing or referring to their grandparents.
The poll of 3,857 respondents also found that 40 percent of grandparents surveyed clearly remember their grandchildren’s birthdays, but that only 5.8 percent of grandchildren remember all their grandparents’ birthdays. More than 60 percent of grandchildren did not know any of their grandparents’ birthdays, the ministry said.
According to the survey, grandparents would most like their grandchildren to teach them how to use computers and cellphones and to help them stay healthy. The top things grandchildren said they wanted to teach their grandparents were how to live healthily, avoid fraud and use computers and cellphones.
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