Between Tradition and Modernity: “Leftover” Women in Shanghai

Ji, Yingchun

doi:10.1111/jomf.12220

Cited by 175 publications

(117 citation statements)

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“…Two particular groups of women are vulnerable to such inequity: never-married working women and female divorcées are especially subject to gender discrimination and even ridicule. Single career women, particularly those with high incomes, age 27 or older, are labeled 'leftover' (shengnü), and stigmatized for their unmarried status (Ji 2015;Gaetano 2010;Hong Fincher 2014). The government, the media, and even their own families mock them for being 'too picky' in their choice of a partner.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Escape from the country: the gender politics of Chinese women in pursuit of transnational romance

Zurndorfer

2018

Gender, Place & Culture

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This study focuses on two marginalized groups in Chinese society: 27-years old (or older) 'left-over' (never-married) women and divorced women. Both these kinds of women are subject to discrimination and ridicule by the mass media and even their own families. This essay argues that despite the economic prosperity China has enjoyed over the last thirty years, gender relations in the country are rooted in a patriarchal discourse that reveals a hybridity of old and new ideals-family responsibility and individual self-fulfillment-in which the pursuit of love and marital commitment cannot be divorced from larger social-cultural-economic structures that endorse intergenerational responsibility and obligation, as well as promote gender inequality in the home and workplace. For these two groups of ostracized women, romance with foreign men may seem an alternative to the constraints of this structural framework. Drawing from a pool of evidence, published interviews, media reports, and printed ethnographic studies, this study analyzes the predicaments of leftover and divorced women, the interactions between these women and foreign men, and what their experiences with these men say about gender and racial differences in relation to gender inequality. Introduction: gender inequality and marriage China's compressed modernity, from a socialist collective to a neoliberal consumer economy in which a 'new moral-sexual-economic order' has emerged, muddles how the ideals of marriage, gender roles, and personal fulfillment fit into this changing scenario (Sun and Wei 2017). Historically, espousal of the values of love and intimacy did not get much of a chance in twentieth-century China when the country became enmeshed into the two great discourses of liberation and revolution that ultimately prioritized a couple's ideological commitment to the Communist Party (Pan 2015, 280). Beginning with the reforms of the 1980s, China's rapid economic rise from third-world status to global superpower fueled new ways

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confidence: 99%

Escape from the country: the gender politics of Chinese women in pursuit of transnational romance

Zurndorfer

2018

Gender, Place & Culture

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“…As a result, a number of important questions are left unanswered. In China, is remarriage an "incomplete" institution (Cherlin 1978(Cherlin , 2004, which is regulated to a lesser extent by the norms that encourage homogamous pairings, such as "marriages of matching doors" (Hu 2016b;Ji 2015;Lui 2016)? If a lack of marital mobility reinforces socioeconomic inequality (Schwartz 2013), does assortative mating in remarriage help mitigate social inequality by reducing social boundaries, or exacerbate inequality by reinforcing socioeconomic segregation?…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Chinese people have long upheld the tradition of "marriages of matching doors" (men dang hu dui): Parents prefer that their adult children marry someone of a similar socioeconomic status (Hu 2016b;Lui 2016), and such preferences in turn shape adult children's spouse selection, through socialization and parental intervention (Ji 2015;Qian and Qian 2014;Riley 1994). In the past few decades the increasing prevalence of educational homogamy has contributed to growing inter-household earnings inequality in urban China (Hu and Qian 2015).…”

Section: Theorizing Assortative Matingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Since patriarchal traditions oblige men to be the breadwinners and age correlates with the accumulation of economic resources, women tend to marry men who are older than themselves in pursuit of economic stability, especially given the recent resurgence of gender inequality in China's labor market (Mu and Xie 2014;van Poppel et al 2001). Furthermore, a woman's youth is considered a valuable resource, as the sexualized construction of femininity associates 'youthful looks' with physical attractiveness and fecundity in China and elsewhere (England and McClintock 2009;Ji 2015).…”

Section: Age Assortative Matingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Educational and age assortative mating in China: The importance of marriage order

Hu¹,

Qian²

2019

DemRes

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BACKGROUNDFamily change in China is characterized by increasing divorce rates and a growing number of remarriages, like in many Western countries. Assortative mating is a crucial part of the institution of (re)marriage and plays a key role in the (re)production of socioeconomic inequality. However, no research has examined assortative mating in remarriage in China, despite the recent emergence of studies on this topic in Western contexts. METHODOur analysis drew on pooled, nationally representative data from seven waves of the Chinese General Social Survey and China Family Panel Studies between 2010 and 2015 (N = 49,530 individuals). We used logistic regression models to examine educational and age assortative mating patterns of people in first and higher-order marriages. RESULTSFor both men and women, educational homogamy was less likely to occur in remarriages than in first marriages. Holding age at marriage constant, compared with those married to a similarly-aged spouse, men and women married to a spouse who was older than themselves were more likely to be in a remarriage as opposed to a first marriage. CONCLUSIONOur findings suggest that social norms that encourage status homogamy in first marriages are less salient in configuring assortative mating patterns in remarriages.Thus, remarriage appears to be incompletely institutionalized in China. . Both authors contributed equally to the work and their names are listed alphabetically. http://www.demographic-research.org CONTRIBUTION This is the first study that has compared assortative mating patterns between firstmarried and remarried people in China. This study highlights the importance of marriage order -as an advantage for the never married and a disadvantage for the previously married -in shaping marital mobility in China.

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“…While marriage continues to mark women's entry into adulthood throughout China (Ji, 2015), there are significant differences between rural and urban contexts. As Gaetano (2004) explains, 'the centrality of marriage in rural women's life course means that parents and daughters alike wish to maintain the young woman's good reputation' (p. 49).…”

Section: Norms Governing Singlehood and Marriage In Rural And Urban Cmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploiting the distance between conflicting norms: Female rural-to-urban migrant workers in Shanghai negotiating stigma around singlehood and marriage

Peeren

2019

European Journal of Cultural Studies

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On the basis of fieldwork conducted in Shanghai, this article explores how Chinese rural-to-urban migrant women cope with the stigmatization they face as a result of conflicting gender norms regarding singlehood and marriage in their home communities and in Shanghai. We focus on how migrant women legitimate their relationship status as single, married or having a boyfriend in relation to these norms. Our findings reveal that migrant women, while not rejecting existing norms outright, actively pre-empt or counteract the stigmatization of their singlehood or of the fact that they live apart from their husband using coping strategies that exploit their position in between the urban context and their rural hometowns in intricate ways.

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Between Tradition and Modernity: “Leftover” Women in Shanghai

Abstract: Since the turn of the new millennium, single, educated women in China's major cities

Cited by 175 publications

References 42 publications

Escape from the country: the gender politics of Chinese women in pursuit of transnational romance

Escape from the country: the gender politics of Chinese women in pursuit of transnational romance

Educational and age assortative mating in China: The importance of marriage order

Exploiting the distance between conflicting norms: Female rural-to-urban migrant workers in Shanghai negotiating stigma around singlehood and marriage

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