TY - JOUR
T1 - Fairy brides from heaven
T2 - Mate selection in rural China, 1949-2000
AU - SONG, Jing
AU - Luke, Nancy
N1 - Copyright:
Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2014
Y1 - 2014
N2 - We investigated how men and women in rural China actively responded to macro-level government interventions with their marriage choices across three historical periods: nascent socialism, the Cultural Revolution, and the era of market reform. We outlined major shifts in ideological foci and redistributive policies and linked these macro-level "shocks" to detailed life history narratives (N = 42 spouses from 38 marriages) to explore changing meanings of gender preferences and the availability of preferred partners in the marriage market. The qualitative analysis revealed that the preferences of women and men for spouses with particular characteristics remained relatively stable over time: women used marriage as a vehicle for economic security and men sought brides who would be good homemakers and mothers. However, the shifting economic and political climate influenced the types of individuals endowed with essential resources and thus changed the characteristics most coveted in the marriage market across periods.
AB - We investigated how men and women in rural China actively responded to macro-level government interventions with their marriage choices across three historical periods: nascent socialism, the Cultural Revolution, and the era of market reform. We outlined major shifts in ideological foci and redistributive policies and linked these macro-level "shocks" to detailed life history narratives (N = 42 spouses from 38 marriages) to explore changing meanings of gender preferences and the availability of preferred partners in the marriage market. The qualitative analysis revealed that the preferences of women and men for spouses with particular characteristics remained relatively stable over time: women used marriage as a vehicle for economic security and men sought brides who would be good homemakers and mothers. However, the shifting economic and political climate influenced the types of individuals endowed with essential resources and thus changed the characteristics most coveted in the marriage market across periods.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85025692530&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3138/jcfs.45.4.497
DO - 10.3138/jcfs.45.4.497
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85025692530
SN - 0047-2328
VL - 45
SP - 497
EP - 515
JO - Journal of Comparative Family Studies
JF - Journal of Comparative Family Studies
IS - 4
ER -