The people whom I interviewed still referred to all elder care arrangements as part of filial
responsibilities. My findings, nevertheless, reveal changes in care arrangements and in the practice
of filial piety in Taiwan. The commodification of elder care allows the younger generation to be
emancipated from the round-the-clock caregiving. It is also clear that family dynamics change
profoundly in the context of hiring a care worker. Households in the Han tradition used to be strictly
patriarchal, with authority being passed down from father to son. Now, married daughters are
participating in caring for their parents, even though they still do not have equal decision-making
power with sons. Daughters normally take on direct care work and sometimes step up as the primary
caregiver when the foreign care worker is unavailable