A family affair?

Volunteers celebrate in preparation for the winter solstice with 1,000 senior citizens in Lanzhou, Gansu province, on Monday. Xue Chaohua / China Daily

Social transformation

Liu believes that while the problem may indicate a lack of humanity or lax moral standards, it is also a reaction to China's ongoing social transformation.

Since the 1980s, when cities first opened their doors to rural laborers, millions of young and middle-aged workers have left their homes to seek a better standard of living, he said.

However, if the migrants want to take care of their parents properly, they have to return to their rural home, which often means a sharp downturn in their own living conditions.

Moreover, the middle-aged - the main focus of filial piety concerns - have children of their own to provide for.

In today's China, that's a big burden because nowadays parents not only have to bring up their children, but also have the added burden of paying for a decent education and for extracurricular activities that give children the chance to develop in other ways.

"So when the family structure changes, some people opt to 'sacrifice' the seniors, who are an even more vulnerable group," he said.

The problem is becoming even more acute because seniors are "losing protection from the traditional clan system and traditional culture", he added.

Yang Hua, a research fellow with the Center for Rural China Governance at Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, said that in the past, villages were almost completely isolated from the outside world, so relations between villagers were forged by blood or close geographic proximity.

Now, the old traditions are dying out in the rural areas as a result of greater contact with the outside world, the labor outflow and the growing influence of the market economy.

"It's becoming more common that people just take care of their own business," Yang said.

Wuhan University's Liu said that in this new cultural climate, young family members probably don't even realize that they are being "impious", even if they fail to treat their parents with the respect accorded to previous generations.