WHY MARRIAGE?
Marriage squeeze and mate selection in China
Marriage is a near universal practice in China, associated with social adulthood, status and success (Lee and Wang, 1999; Jones, 2005; Sheng, 2005; Evans, 2007). Strong family and social pressure is exerted on young women and men to get married (Zhang and Zhong, 2005; Li et al., 2010), and not getting married is still unusual (Eklund, 2016a). At the same time, men have been subject to a ‘marriage squeeze’ due to a shortage of women in the marriage market. Historically, this shortage stemmed from disproportionately high female mortality rates (Banister, 2004) and the practice of concubinage in pre-1949 China (Eklund, 2013). Today, the male marriage squeeze is fuelled by falling birth rates, where younger birth cohorts, smaller than older ones, generate a shortage of women when men from older birth cohorts marry younger women (Attané, 2013). Moreover, as the genera- tions born from the 1980s with their increasingly skewed sex ratios in favour of males reach marriageable age, the male marriage squeeze will be further exacerbated. Studies have estimated that among cohorts born between 1980 and 2000, 22 million more men than women were born (Ebenstein and Sharygin, 2009). Attané (2006) estimates that the sex ratio among people aged 15–49 will continue to increase into the future, reaching 117–120 in 2050, while Tucker and Hook (2013) project that the number of single men aged 25–39 will peak at almost 30 million in 2030. Despite differences with regards to numbers and time frame, there is evidence that the male marriage squeeze will intensify over the decades to come.
How do men respond to the marriage squeeze in China? What strategies do they deploy to find a spouse? How are women’s mate selection practices affected by their numeric shortage? Does the marriage squeeze affect the rate and timing of marriage, and does it lead to alternative mate selection practices? Those are some of the questions previous studies have engaged with. The aim of this chapter is to offer an overview of available research on mate selection in the context of a marriage squeeze, and to discuss the findings in relation to different theoretical perspectives. Special emphasis is placed on investigat- ing the impact of high sex ratios and ‘surplus’ men on mate selection.
REFERENCES
Lisa Eklund and Isabelle Attané ：'Handbook on the Family and Marriage in China', Marriage squeeze and mate selection in China, 10, pp.156.
Marriage is for me
As I wrestled between the grand issue of 'rules' and contemporary individualism, my initial inspiration was to express some of my thoughts on marriage. My hometown in wenzhou city in zhejiang province, China is one of the private economy the most developed cities in China, residents' per capita disposable income is very high, but is in such a place, seems to be one of the best in the whole of China old school, for many of the old traditional belief in the continuation of the general concept is still like a family, especially in marriage is more apparent. It's fair to say that the rules of marriage more or less shaped who I am today.
Today, many young people's marriage is still in my hometown all the time about by parents, there are many places in the prevailing "dating" this matter, the matchmaker thought to facilitate marriageable men and women is also a lot in accumulating blessings to himself, and the child's parents also have this aspect demand, dating market supply and demand relations thus formed, at the same time, the natural rules also appeared. I once heard two matchmakers discussing their own "resources" with each other. One of them said that he knew a family who wanted to marry their daughter whose requirement was that 1. 2. The husband's parents must not be older than 55 3. The husband must have his own house 4. No serious illness in three generations of the family (genetic problems) 8. The boy earns more than rmb300,000 a year (about ￡40,000 a year, but wages in China are about 1/3 of those in the UK) 9. Boys must be over 178cm tall (genetic problem). Although so specific and realistic requirements is alone, but apparently I can hear the dialogue is not entirely a coincidence, especially at the feast, the marriageable men and women back to the hometown, media people started to work again, such a dialogue between each other are not rare, only the requirements of each family is slightly different, different classes of dating circles have their own rules.
RELATED BOOKS
《Inferiority and Transcendence》 - Alfred Adler. Core idea: Adler believes that everyone faces three problems in life: career, society, and sex.
The response to these three questions is our deepest sense of the meaning of life. And the meaning of life is to give, to take an interest in others and to cooperate. So marriage is also a commitment to the opposite sex, and it's a partnership. Adler also believes that friendship is, to some extent, an exercise in marital relationships, an exercise in cooperation. Based on this understanding, I think it's safe to say that people who are good at friendship are more likely to be good at marriage than people who are not good at social friendship.
Children's sense of cooperation with others is derived from the cooperative relationship between parents. Similarly, the main contours of their ideas about marriage were derived from their parents' marriage. Parents with poor relationships are unlikely to teach their children how to cooperate, and if initial impressions are not corrected, they will remain pessimistic about marriage later on. Therefore, a happy family is the best education for children.
I hope to express this kind of cooperative relationship in my works. I believe that the improvement of individual consciousness in the current era and excessive individualism have caused the lack of group cooperation ability of some young people in the new generation.
《System of procreation》- Xiaotong Fei.
As for marriage, Fei believes that 'marriage is not a private matter' but an institution to maintain social relations. The purpose of marriage is to maintain a long-term conjugal relationship, which is necessary to bring up children. This view assumes that one of the purposes of a marriage relationship is to bring up children.
As an ordinary reader (who had not studied sociology), when I finished Reading Fei Lao's Reproductive System, I felt as if I had suddenly picked up an open flashlight in the dark journey of life, through which I could see the dim face of the world. It also answers questions that have puzzled me, like why do we follow old customs and rules that seem backward and inappropriate, and why do people become defenders of those rules when they fall prey to them. People don't seem to think about where these rules come from, why they should be upheld, and if they do ask, they will probably get answers like "inherited from ancestors". In the end, it is the dead who oversee the living.
As a boy growing up in a new era, I have always understood the contemporary women's careful consideration of marriage, and I need to explore the relationship between the meaning behind it and social changes. I have been oscillating between personal persistence and social empathy, and trying to find an answer. After coming into contact with Mr. Fei Xiaotong's "Fertility System", I hope to find the answer to my doubts.
First, on marriage, Fei believes that "marriage is not a private matter", but an institution to maintain social relations. The purpose of marriage is to maintain a long-term conjugal relationship, which is necessary to bring up children. This view assumes that one of the purposes of a marriage relationship is to bring up children. But in the eyes of modern people, raising children is not a necessary activity. According to the older generation, one of the purposes of raising children is to provide for oneself in old age. However, for today's young people, the correct concept of raising children is to hope that they can grow into a "normal person" who can adapt to the society, and the function of providing for the elderly is not particularly important. In the future, parents and children will live more and more like those in Europe and America. In other words, the family pattern of the future will be one in which parents and children have separate families, while older parents may live far apart from their children and not be able to rely solely on them for their old age. Parents can consider emigrating to a welfare state, a nursing home, or an elderly community (a community with a predominantly elderly population). Of course, this situation needs to be protected by a well-developed social welfare system. Therefore, in this case, even without children, retirement is not difficult. Of course, because China's current state welfare system is not that perfect, many people still need to have children to provide security for their old age. But for some people who think they can handle their old age, having children is not a necessity.
For modern people who do not want to have children, having children is an unnecessary and inadequate thing. It is not necessary to "raise children for old age" or to have children for any other purpose. Inadequate child rearing is an expensive business and not every family can meet the conditions to have children. Since they do not want to have children, marriage becomes an unnecessary thing.
《Marriage and Morality》 - Bertrand Russell
For modern people who do not want to have children, having children is an unnecessary and inadequate thing. It is not necessary to "raise children for old age" or to have children for any other purpose. Inadequate child rearing is an expensive business and not every family can meet the conditions to have children. Since they do not want to have children, marriage becomes an unnecessary thing.
《The Transformation of Private Life》 - Yan Yunxiang
Over the past half-century, the state has played a key role in the evolution of the family, a process that has driven the transformation of private life and, consequently, the recent surge in egocentric individualism. The new type of individuals under the family culture pursue their individual rights to the maximum, but ignore their moral responsibilities to the society or others.
WHY FEET?
Feet carry too many cultural symbols and traditional rules
Since ancient times, the foot has been a cultural symbol in various cultures around the world, especially in ancient China. For example, due to the low status of women in Chinese history, small feet were sexually attractive to men. Foot binding the use of ligature binding to compress the foot, inhibit growth, resulting in fractures and deformity. Foot binding not only has a physical impact on women, but also has a negative impact on their temperament and courage. However, feet themselves are the necessary motor organs to support our daily walking, running and jumping. Therefore, from the perspective of semiotics, feet can or can be referred to words such as leaping and escaping. If feet are shackled, it refers to restricted freedom. In the long history, such a visual symbol referring to freedom is usually associated with social moral oppression and traditional rules, which is in sharp contrast. That is why I think it is very suitable as the carrier of the expression of works.
In many of the contemporary Chinese film and television works can also see the emergence of foot as a visual culture symbol, in zhang yimou's "raise the red lantern" as an example, the voice of the hammer feet in the film appeared frequently, a ceremony on behalf of the feudal ethical code, when he heard someone hammer feet verses, the facial expression is unease. The sound of hammer feet also makes the women of the big yard more infighting. It also more delicately creates a more prominent atmosphere of "polygamy" and highlights the supremacy of male power in the feudal system.
From a historical perspective, in ancient China, the ultimate patriarchal society, men as the rule maker, women as victims. But at that time, women could not look back at this period of history and criticize it objectively like people do today. Instead, such dross rules became the survival criteria for women at that time. Back to the present society, the history of foot binding is gone, but the idea of foot binding still exists in this society, and it is no longer just women who are the victims. All people living in the society have more or less become the victims of different rules, and we are the makers of rules. We unconsciously become the makers of rules and at the same time suffer from the oppression of rules.
MOVIE: RAISE THE RED LANTERN
Director: Yimou Zhang
The film revolves around the topic of feudal ethics, tells the story of a large family during the Republic of China several concubines quarreled, and caused a series of tragic story.
In the film, at 7:02s, 10:00s, 21:40s, 37:00 s, 51:20s, 1:14:00s, 2:00:00s, there are many pictures and descriptions of the symbolic meaning of feet and lanterns.
In the movie, the red colour of the lantern looks like a kind of celebration, but it is a depressing colour in the movie. It is a manifestation of desire and humanity. The whole house is covered with red, representing desire and human nature. In the patriarchal society, women use harsh colours to tell others they are favoured, so others will work hard because of this red colour and live in such a competitive game for a lifetime. No matter what colour it is for them, they will break their heads to fight for it, even at the cost of their lives.
The red lanterns are hung high, but people can see the dark and heavy feudal ethics. The excellent control of colour makes the film extraordinarily aesthetic and brings a strong visual impact. The deep house and courtyard in the film are like a cage, the best mockery of the feudal darkness.
CRITICAL REFLECTION
Description
In the course research of Unit2 for several months, based on the main direction of the research -- post-colonization, I made further progress on the original issue of individual and identity identification, focusing on the traditional marriage with Chinese characteristics, which is related to the social changes in post-colonization in modern China. This is an anatomy and reflection on the background of self-identity. In the selection of materials, I still use a large number of ready-made (medieval) and natural materials, including sculpture, installation and comprehensive painting. In several exhibitions, according to the expected interaction between the works and the audience, the layout of the exhibition space and the synergistic relationship between the works have been adjusted for many times.
Feeling
When the work was exhibited in Camberwell Space, the paintings looked mysterious under the cover of red cloth, which also determined that this work had a unique attraction when it was first exhibited. The audience kept pulling back the red cloth to see what was going on. Through my communication with several foreign artists and Chinese art, I realized the significance of semiotics in this work. Many ready-made products are used as cultural symbols, and the confusion between signifier and signified is very obvious in the interpretation of the audience. In talking to a German female artists, she fully enjoy in red cloth to reveal the process, and the red cloth implication behind the meaning of the female body images to her shock, she put attention has focused on the content of the picture, to contact to the related feminist, but she didn't have too many questions about why the red cloth. In conversations with several Chinese artists, who had already identified the cultural symbols of such ready-made products, they quickly moved into my story, and they seemed more interested in my personal background to complete their reasoning. An artist friend told me that when she saw a 24-year-old artist dealing with such a delicate marriage issue, it was hard to keep the air of gossip from spreading in the discussion of her work.
Evaluation
After this first exhibition, I realized that these painting contents are visual symbols with a broader understanding basis. In the eyes of the audience who do not have the same cultural background as me, these popular visual symbols will become the first point of the whole logical order, thus affecting the judgment and emotional resonance of the whole work. However, the guiding effect of those traditional symbols on many Chinese audiences seems to be too strong. As a result, after the work plays the role of visual guidance at the beginning, the audience and I become an interview, and my own strong emotions and energy are gradually diluted in the constant pouring out. Therefore, I think more consideration should be given to the indication of symbols to establish a clearer visual logic.
Analysis
In a few months time, through the literature material/seminar/exhibition and so on, I realized there are a lot of issues involving marriage research blank, many of the early marriage research literature is in men and women relation has done a lot of research, but obviously along with the development of the world view of marriage, both in terms of time, space, ideology, gender, and so on ways, It shouldn't be so limited. Similarly, I can understand the difficulties in this research direction. In the face of many marriage problems, both empiricism and rationalism seem to have obvious drawbacks. Maybe a long-term field survey with expanded groups can explain this problem clearly. Therefore, I think more rigorous thinking is needed to develop a work of art through insufficiently rich or over-subjective research materials. How to express the work accurately, how to reject overly personal emotions, and how to absorb women's thinking in this issue are all the research directions that need to be done at this stage.
Conclusion & Action Planning
When thinking about the future development direction, I specially reviewed what I had written in Unit1. I was very glad that I could achieve some plans and goals set at Unit2 at that time. In general, as ideas become clearer, the sample and social groups become clearer. From the point of view of materials and production process, through the plaster mold turning technology and the unique texture of finished products, I also began to try ceramic and glass materials to establish the connection between such fragile properties and emotional relationship, and in the process of experiment, I conceived the sketch of the next stage of work.