Chinese Marriages in Transition

Outdated models of Chinese gender roles, marriage, and family transitions portray these changes as streamlined and unidirectional, from traditional to modern, public to private, collective to individual. Chinese Marriages in Transition documents the complex, nuanced, and multidirectional nature of these cultural transformations. Using complex and large-scale historical national data as well as comprehensive data from multiple countries, Xiaoling Shu and Jingjing Chen demonstrate that, while the second demographic transition is unfolding in many advanced Western societies, it is not necessarily a normative form of societal transition. Working instead from a framework of "new familism," Shu and Chen show that Chinese new familism consists of both old and new values, including the persistence of some traditional beliefs and practices, accompanied by a transition to modern perceptions of gender, and adaption to some modern forms of family formation.

Chinese Marriages in Transition documents the nuanced and multidirectional nature of the transformations in Chinese marriage, gender roles, and family. Using complex and large-scale historical national data as well as comprehensive data from multiple countries, Xiaoling Shu and Jingjing Chen demonstrate that Chinese new familism consists of values both old and new.

XIAOLING SHU is a professor of sociology at the University of California, Davis. She is the author of Knowledge Discovery in the Social Sciences: A Data Mining Approach. JINGJING CHEN is a mixed-methods researcher at Google, who lives in Berkeley, California.

Series Foreword BY PÉTER BERTA

1 Introduction: The Second Demographic Transition and the Chinese Gender and Family System 

2 From Patriarchy to New Familism: The Chinese Gender and Family System

3 Flexible Traditionalism Ideology: Global Comparison and Historical Transformation

4 Changing Patterns of Cohabitation, Marriage, Divorce, Remarriage, and Fertility

5 New Familism: Changing Gender, Family, Marriage, and Sexual Values

6 Fertility and Divorce: Are Number and Gender of Children Associated with Divorce

7 Marital Dynamics: Housework, Breadwinning, Decision-Making, and Marital Satisfaction

8 Conclusion: Convergence, Contradictions, and Changes in the Future

AcknowledgmentsNotes
References
Index "Shu and Chen identify a distinctive pattern of 'flexible traditionalism' that reinforces the notion of separate spheres and heightens gender differences in marriage and family life. An important and original book that will further the debate on how and why Chinese women and men are charting a different course than their peers in Europe and North America." "The radical transformations in the Chinese system of gender, family, and marriage do not neatly fit the prevailing theories of modern social change, nor are they outside the global transitions of the last century.  Shu and Chen masterfully integrate China's uniquely "flexible traditionalist" system into that broader story of social change, providing a powerful introduction to Chinese social change for all gender and family scholars."