Marriage in China has undergone changes during the state reform and opening period, largely due to new legal policies such as the New Marriage Act of 1950 and the family planning policy in place from 1979 to 2015. Major transformations in the 20th Century are characterized by changes from traditional structures for Chinese marriages, such as arranged marriages, to places where the freedom to choose a person's spouse is generally respected. However, parental and cultural pressures are still placed on many individuals, especially women, to choose socially and economically profitable marriage partners. While divorce remains rare in China, 1.96 million couples applying for a divorce in 2010 represent a rate of 14% higher than the previous year and doubled from ten years ago. Despite the increasing divorce rate, heterosexual marriage is still considered a natural part of the journey of life and as a good citizenship responsibility in China.
Video Marriage+in+modern+China
​​â € <â €
Traditionally, married life is based on the principles of Confucian ideology. This ideology forms a marriage culture that supports the "Chinese family idea, which has many generations under one roof". Confucianism provides order and hierarchy as well as the collective need of individuals. It is the maintenance of filial piety that dictates the traditional code of conduct between men and women in marriage and lifelong preparation for marriage. Separation of women and men's education is a cultural practice that separates both sexes, because men and women will occupy a different sphere after marriage.
"Marriage is under the absolute control of family elders and is considered an important part of the family strategy for success". The patrilineal succession system and ancestor worship leave no place for the daughters in their family tree. Traditionally, brides became part of their husbands' families and basically severed ties with their christmas family with special emphasis on the wife's ability to produce male heirs. Because matchmaking is a habit, husbands and wives often do not see each other until the wedding day. Married life consists of complex and rigid family arrangements with the role of men to provide for families and women to take care of domestic duties within the home, as dictated by ideas submitted in Song Ruozhao Analects for Women . Although Confucianism no longer thinks of an explicit belief system in China, it has created a lasting legacy of traditional assumptions and ideas about marriage. Thus, it remains a major barrier to achieving gender equality and women's sexual autonomy in marriage.
Although this is a common Han practice, many minority groups in China practice different marriage practices and family lineages. For example, the small ethnic minorities of Mosuo practice matrilineal forwarding, and for the entire process of pregnancy, birth, family raising, married couples work together and there is very little gender division of labor in the practices of the Lahu.
Maps Marriage+in+modern+China
Marriage law
In general, while the following marriage laws are official state policies, they are not always followed in practice.
On September 10, 1980 the Marriage Law of the People's Republic of China was adopted as a modified law of the Marriage Act of 1950. The 1950 Marriage Law is the first legal document under the People's Republic of China to address marriage and family law. The Marriage Law of 1980 followed the same format of the 1950 law, but was amended in 2001 to introduce and synthesize the national family planning code. This Marriage Act abolished the feudal marriage system, which includes regulating marriage, male superiority, and neglecting the interests of children. This law also guarantees the right to divorce and free choice marriage.
The law was revised by a group that includes the All-China Women's Federation, the Supreme People's Court, and the Attorney-General's Office, among others. The changes introduced in the Marriage Act of 1980 represent the transition of principles from the traditional marriage structure to the modern legal framework. The law imposes a provision to assess that gender equality and family relationships are emphasized in reform, and are divided into four main sub-sections: general principles, marriage contracts, family relationships, and divorce.
General principles of marriage
The Marriage Act of 1980 establishes that marriage is based on the freedom of spouse choice, monogamous practice, and gender equality. Article 3 of the law emphasizes the freedom to elect one's spouse by prohibiting marriage decisions made by third parties and the use of money or gifts involved in marriage arrangements. The law also prohibits persecution and defection of family members.
Wedding contract
The 1980 law also states that marriage should be an act to be undertaken where coercion by a third party is strictly prohibited. The age requirement for marriage is 22 years for men and 20 years for women, "late and late marriages should be encouraged." The provisions in this law indicate a change from the 1950 law that sets the age requirements at 18 and 20 for women and men respectively, showing state support for marriage at older ages.
The law prohibits marriage between close relatives, defined as line relatives, blood relatives in direct lineage, and supplementary relatives, such as cousins ​​or uncles, to a third degree of relationships. Furthermore, once the marriage has been registered and a certificate for marriage is obtained, the newlyweds can freely choose to become members of their respective families if they wish, meaning they are not obligated to choose one family and leave others like a tradition for Chinese women.
Family relationship
This section of marriage law states that men and women have the same status at home and each has the right to use their own surnames if they choose. Both also have the freedom to work, to engage in society, and to pursue education where it is not permissible to limit others from pursuing these choices. The law emphasizes wedding planning between couples as well. Child abuse, including infanticide or serious harm to infants is prohibited. Wealth earned during marriage belonging to both husband and wife and both have equal rights to the property. Family relationships include the task of supporting and assisting one another; parents to provide their children; and adult children have an obligation to care for their parents. This provision "[emphasizes] the obligation of children to care for aging parents." Women are now not required to obey or serve their in-laws anymore, and married couples can have more intimate relationships.
Children are given the freedom to choose a parent's last name and have the right to request proper care from their parents. Children born out of wedlock have the same rights as children born to married couples and fathers have an obligation to provide for the child. Adoption is legal and the same rights apply between adopted children and parents such as biological children.
The right between adopted child and biological parent becomes zero after the child is adopted. Stepchildren should not be mistreated and are entitled to the same relationship between parents and children. Grandparents have the duty to care for the grandchildren whose parents are dead and the grandchildren have an obligation to care for the grandparents whose children have died. Older siblings capable of caring for orphaned brothers have an obligation to provide their relatives.
Divorce
Divorce can be awarded when the husband and wife want a divorce. Both should apply for divorce and make arrangements for children and property so that a divorce certificate can be issued. Divorce initiated by one party must be brought to the people's court and will be granted if reconciliation is not possible. The law also provides that divorce does not break the relationship between parents and children and that the relationship must be maintained.....
marriage reform
Today's marriage has been influenced by many revolutionary and feminist movements that occurred in the 20th century. Such reforms are focused on women and families. For example, efforts to end foot binding, the movement to secure the right to education for women, and campaigns to enable women to become laborers, along with other changes all challenge traditional gender roles of married women. However, in practice, women are still responsible for most domestic work and are expected to put their husband and family first. Working class women are often forced to juggle the double burden of doing most of the household chores with the work they have to do to support their families. In particular, the May Fourth movement calls on men and women to interact freely in public, and makes marriage a free choice based on true love. The freedom of choosing the pair was codified in the 1950 Marriage Law, which also forbids regulated and forced marriages.
Important changes in marriage practices date from 1950 and 1980, the Marriage Law prohibiting infidelity, child marriage, polygamy, and the sale of sons and daughters into marriage or prostitution. The provision made for changes in property ownership has also significantly altered the marital relationship between men and women. For example, women are allowed to own property under this law, and inherit it. Laws such as one-child policy have affected the family structure and fertility patterns of married couples as well.
The marriage law also imposes age restrictions on marriage unions in an attempt to encourage the married old age. But the law appears to have the opposite effect when the law appears to reduce the age at which couples marry. In 1978 the average age of marriage for women was 22.4 and 25.1 in the rural and urban areas respectively, and after the 1980 Marriage Act declined to 21.0 years in the decade after the law was enacted. The mid-twentieth century also saw a change in the occurrence of dowry and payment for the bride because this is no longer the case often. However, reports in recent years indicate that these habits are still practiced in some areas, and may actually increase as the government has loosened its strict prohibition against such practices.
In January 2017, authorities in Kaili City, in Guizhou province issued a new law prohibiting marriage supper for married people for a second time in an effort to subdue public display of luxury. Various parties, and the use of more than one location for one marriage has also been banned. A bride should now sign up to their local government office if they want to have a wedding party to ensure that they are not registered as having been married before.
same-sex marriage
There is currently no recognition of same-sex trade unions in China. Same-sex relationships have become part of China's long history, but in a modern period where "cultural tolerance toward same-sex eroticism is fading away". In the modernization effort after 1949 sexuality was removed from the movement until a certain policy was enacted in 1956. The act of homosexuality was banned and classified as "hooliganism" and punishable under criminal law.
In 1984 the state no longer punish homosexuality as a crime, but classifies homosexuality as a mental illness. However, homosexuality is no longer classified as a mental disorder. Being a homosexual even has a greater stigma than being single or divorced. Apart from this stigma, many local communities have developed in China which has increased the visibility of sexuality and non-normative gender. However, family and heterosexual marriages still serve as a form of public social control that is pressuring many of these women to participate in heterosexual marriages. As a result, several mobile applications and social media networks have grown in recent years to help homosexual individuals find members of the opposite sex to marry, while continuing to date people of the same sex.
Parent involvement
Pre-modern marriage decisions in China are traditionally made by parents with the help of matchmakers, and the destiny of children is determined at an early age. Since the reforms of the 20th century, and the implementation of marriage law, such practices have been banned. By law, the decision to marry lies in the freedom of choosing men or women to choose their spouse. Before the Era of Mao, and during the final period of the Chinese empire, young people had almost no choice about their own marriage. Parents or older generations decide everything for them, who should be their spouse and the amount of money spent on the wedding.
Arranged marriage
Research has shown that law enforcement may not necessarily stop the practice of parenting to regulate full marriage, but changes in practice are proven. In the last fifty years, data show that parental involvement in marriage decisions has declined in all regions of China and among the majority of the population.
Total control in marriage decisions of children by parents is rare in China today, but parental involvement in decision making now takes on different forms. Parental involvement can range from introducing potential partners to advise on marriage decisions. Since families are an important institution in Chinese culture, parents may no longer be in absolute control but continue to influence their children's marriage decisions. Marriage decisions are important to parents because the family is understood not only in the present but as a lineage that exists all the time in which the living generation respects the ancestors. In addition, women are generally expected to marry men who are economically better off themselves in a practice called hypergamy. Thus, marriage can benefit the whole family.
Living with married children
Beyond marriage decisions, parents can also engage in the marriage life of their children through the arrangement of their lives. Although many couples now have separate shelter, the pattern of parent households and children varies according to different circumstances. The occurrence of parents and their married children living together changes during their lifetime as circumstances such as the needs of parenting for married couples appear, or when parents become widows, and/or parents' health considerations.
Wedding practice type
Nude wedding
The nude marriage ( ?? , lu? H? N ) is a Chinese slang recently, created in 2008 to illustrate the growing number of marriages between partners who do not have significant assets. The "Five Nos" involved are: no rings, no ceremonies, no honeymoon, no houses, and no cars. This practice violates the tradition that a groom should provide a new place for his future wife or, at least, that the couple's family should provide them with a material foundation to provide their future grandchildren. However, in order for marriage to be legally recognized and protected by law and government, marriage must be registered with the government in accordance with the law of marriage. This practice also saved the family of the groom from an expensive marriage, the calculated average cost has increased 4000 times in the last 30 years.
Flash wedding
Flash or blitz wedding (Chinese: ?? , sh? Nh? N ) is a recent slang (and condescending) for marriage between couples who have known each other for less than a month. In some cases, these young couples (usually in large Chinese cities) represent a change of attitude toward romantic love; In another, they have found soaring real estate prices that have made such marriage quicker more economical. The "Flash" marriage is also more likely to occur because some couples are pressured by parents to get married quickly before the parents feel it is too late. But "flash" weddings are more likely to end in divorce soon afterwards because couples find themselves unable to cope with each other because of personal habits that they do not know before they marry each other.
ShÃÆ'¨ngn? ("remaining women")
In recent years, the concept of ShÃÆ'¨ngn? or "remaining women" (??) have been created by government and government media to pressure women to get married early. State media often have articles about women who regret their decision not to marry early, highlighting the consequences of getting married at older ages. These "remaining women" are stigmatized as abnormal and unfeminine, because solitude is a failure to obey the traditional role of women as wives despite their success in the workplace.
Currently in China, there are more men than women, and women in every age group are more likely to marry than their male counterparts. Therefore, this will affect the long-term population growth in China as well as the number of working age populations available in China, which is why the government believes that it is necessary to persuade women to get married early.
Since the opening and reforming period of the 1980s, more and more women hold bachelor degrees and are now reluctant to "tie" to marriage so soon after their graduation, with women choosing to be more career-oriented. The other dynamic is an upside-down hypergamy, in which men prefer to marry women younger than them, get less than their counterparts and come from "lesser" backgrounds than the man himself.
The media conception of "remaining women" has instilled new anxieties in parents, especially college-educated girls who have postponed marriage through their twenties. Thus, many parents are encouraged to find a suitable partner for their children, and matchmaking angles have emerged in most major cities in China. Most of the matchmaking candidates in these corners are women, who separate the idea that there are men who are more suitable than women who can form marriage partnerships. These women feel conflicting desires to satisfy their parents and experience an autonomous and romantic love. They also expressed a desire to change the gender norms of their social reality by fighting the "double burden" of career women. Thus, although marriages are set against the official state policy, parents are still looking for ways to exert influence and pressure on their children to shape marriages that benefit the family.
Madam and marriage
Wives in China are generally still seen as constrained in the domestic realm of home and child care. Therefore, it is common for Chinese entrepreneurs to take deposits, as they comprise an entirely different aspect of life. Having savings reflects a man's wealth and reputation; it signifies masculinity, charm, and sophistication. Furthermore, the mistress often acts as a believer outside of stress and business work. Businesspeople act as caretakers for women of their savings and meet their needs and sometimes even the needs of their families. The dependence of the employer gives a man a sense of manhood and the reputation of wealth because of his ability to show off his finances, he also almost always chooses a poor woman financially so he tends not to leave it and will rely on him as much as possible, very often encouraging him to take more lots of debt. At the time of choosing a Chinese business mistress will almost certainly pick someone she knows for a while, has previously worked for her and believes, in many cases soon after choosing she will fall in love and become almost obsessive over her. This will usually last for several years or until another more suitable mistress arrives and is chosen. In many cases, the businessman will also provide accommodation for his employer in the name of his wife and/or his wife. For a woman, being a mistress is closely related to the hope for women to marry rich husbands who will provide a good life for them and can be regarded as a lifestyle that is acceptable to their families.
Wives are often aware of their husbands' concubines, but they usually live with their husbands because they are economically dependent and do not want to be labeled as divorced or embarrassed women to their families. However, the mistresses almost always have the misfortune to get nothing financially over the time and effort they have put into the arrangements and more often than not promised the earth to be acquired that rarely comes to realization, and is secretly perceived as mere possession. It is also not uncommon for Chinese businessmen to be obsessed with their employers so it is very difficult for him to leave or leave an agreed arrangement. If the mistress's identity ever becomes evident to the Chinese wife's family's family will bring shame to their family, and the mistress will be seen as the equivalent of a prostitute by both sides of the family. In most cases where the wife's family of Chinese entrepreneurs become aware of the mistress, arrangements will be made to try and keep things quiet to keep the honor of their family, eg. for him to be able to see the lady on weekends or arrange a night for a week. It should also be noted that the younger the lady is the more Chinese businessmen will feel their masculinity increase with the average age between fifteen and twenty years younger, it will aim to make it its main property for several years at least or until its appearance begins to fade where the new mistress will be sourced and the old one replaced.
See also
- Chinese wedding
- Wedding ghost (Chinese)
- Walking marriage
- Shim-pua Wedding
- Heqin
- Fourth May Movement
- New Marriage Law
- The back-up partner
- Sheng nu
- Mosuo
- Shanghai Lalas
- Recognition of same-sex trade unions in China
- Wedding Settings
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia
0 Comments