Confucius would not be pleased. Not only are more and more Chinese children opting to live apart from their elderly parents – but more and more Chinese parents seem unaccountably delighted by the idea.

The Confucian concept of filial piety – which used to decree that several generations must live together in one big stressed out Chinese family – seems to be going the way of cheap wages: China is outgrowing it.

Each Chinese “only” child has six elders to care for (and often a boss who has never heard of work-life balance). So increasingly urban pensioners in China are, like their western counterparts, living apart from their children. Some may mourn the end of Chinese civilisation, but it appears that many elderly Chinese are happier than you’d think to escape the generation gap at home and head to a retirement home.