This paper is an attempt to compare China and the United States with respect to the coresidence of parents with adult children and the extent to which those not living with their parents live close,contact and help their parents.Data utilized in this analysis are a 1993 random sample survey conducted in two major Chinese cities—Tianjin and Shanghai,and a 1989 personal interview survey conducted in the Albany Schenectady Troy,New York metropolitan area of the United States. Findings present similarities and differences between family patterns and relations in these two markedly different cultural traditions.