There's a lot of necessity in that family arrangement in China...

There's a lot of necessity in that family arrangement in China and elsewhere Moggs...population size is a biggy. If everybody in China had the 1/4 acre block there'd be no room for anybody else on the planet. In saying that there's a whole lot of positives in a multiple generation arrangement. Sharing costs, sharing food, sharing workload, caring for when ill, less urban sprawl etc etc. We in the west could learn a few lessons from them.
The 1/4 house block with back yard and 4 fences housing 3 people really is a dumb way to go.