The purpose of this article is to illustrate family research in the R.O.C. in this century. Discussing how academic researches deal with contemporary family research issues gives us an insight into family researchers’ views towards the society they live in as the society develops. The reference sources are mainly published social science and humanity academic papers and publications like academic articles related to family issues. Since family system is the core value in Chinese society, we adopt a few typical issues of family research among the huge numbers of related discourses, as the basis of highlighted retrospect to and commentary on family research in the past hundred years. It is expected that through the retrospect to contemporary research on Chinese family, in this article, to illustrate the outline of family research in the hundred years, to analyze the structural cause of family changes, and moreover, to bring forward the possible trend of Chinese family.

     When it comes to the discussion of family changes, there are different concerns at different times, as the R.O.C. faces changes in population structure, industrial development, and interactions with western developed countries. In addition, at different stage of social development, the society also shows different ideologies. From the perspective of academic research, the family research in Taiwan shows three features, inter-disciplined and cross-technology mode, equal stress on academic and clinical aspect, and emphasis on illustration of problems and phenomena. In the aspect of time dimension, the research results could be divided into two periods, before and after the nationalist government transferred to Taiwan, and obviously, the latter one is more productive. As a result, among all the basic concepts of family system, with considerations of the characteristics of Chinese family and influences of the concepts on family changes during the hundred years, this article intends to provide summarized discussions on family structures, family functions, family problems and rising family phenomena.

     Nevertheless, it is true that different disciplines have different emphasis and different theories when it comes to the evolution of family changes during the century. Thus, in terms of choosing the research methods, this article stresses on argumentations resulting from structural and relational causes in traditional social science, and properly applies the argumentations to historical context. As for the researches on psychological and physical modes, they are not included in the discussion here.

     The word “family” in this article refers to the common sense of family in Chinese society, which is “the structure of grade” in traditional Chinese family concept. Under the patriarchal system, from nuclear family, stem family to extended family, family members’ rights and obligations are distributed according to cultural traditions, such as the differences of generation, age and marriage status. As for changes in family during the hundred years, dividing into two periods, before and after the nationalist government moved to Taiwan, the following discourses upon family structures, family functions and family problems. Furthermore, the article also briefly analyzes and comments on both the critics about traditional family system before the transfer to Taiwan and the discussion on rising phenomenon of foreign spouses in contemporary Taiwan. Due to the fact that the research on family structure has the longest history and richest resources, and that it is the basic element of Chinese family system, the article put more emphasis on the discussion of family structure before and after the government moved to Taiwan. At last, the article brings forward observations and reflections on family changes, from the perspective of social structure and functions.