The Anthropology of Chinese Kinship. A Critical Overview
TL;DR: In this paper, a critical overview of the anthropology of Chinese kinship focusing on the twentieth-century Euro-American literature is presented, focusing on early literature of the period before the foundation and closure of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949.
Abstract: This is a critical overview of the anthropology of Chinese kinship focusing on the twentieth-century Euro-American literature. I first deal with the less well-known early literature of the period before the foundation and closure of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949. I then show how the thematic and theoretical heterogeneity of this early literature was superseded during the 1960s and 1970s by a powerful but reductive paradigmatic lineage model of Chinese kinship and society, largely derived from documentary-based studies of lineage organisation in the late imperial period and consolidated through field research in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Inspired by earlier critics of this lineage-model, tuned in to new anthropological trends in the field of kinship studies and triggered by the post-Mao opening of the PRC, the 1990s marked the beginning of a very heterogeneous cycle of renovation generated by new field research. Seen as a whole, this current cycle of renovation has been undertaking a revision of the older descent-centred comparative view of Chinese kinship and is giving important insights to current anthropological debates about the nature of human kinship.
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TL;DR: Investigation of the determinants of son preference in rural China suggests that concerted efforts are needed to ameliorate institutional discrimination against rural people in welfare provisioning and in labor markets, and to promote multiple dimensions of gender equality, including in land rights, wage rates, and education.
Abstract: This article draws on a survey conducted in six provinces in summer 2008 to investigate the determinants of son preference in rural China. The analysis confirms the conventional wisdom that son preference is embedded within patrilineal family structures and practices. We extend our analysis by exploring specific aspects of variation within patrilineal family culture. We find that the patrilineal group (clan) composition of villages and family participation in practices such as building ancestral halls and updating genealogies significantly influence son preference. Yet even though son preference is embedded within patrilineal family culture our analysis suggests that over time the attenuation of son preference is likely. This is because determinants associated with socioeconomic change-for instance higher levels of education direct exposure to official policy education materials higher income (a proxy for rural industrialization) and agricultural mechanization-all attenuate son preference. Being younger and female are also associated with weaker son preference and both characteristics are likely to interact with education and industrialization to further dilute son preference in the longer term. Nevertheless our findings suggest that concerted efforts are needed to ameliorate institutional discrimination against rural people in welfare provisioning and in labor markets and to promote multiple dimensions of gender equality including in land rights wage rates and education.
95 citations
TL;DR: This paper explored a range of marital ideologies and relationship strategies in the lives of lala (lesbian) women in contemporary Beijing and found that marriage is at the core of negotiations that reconcile personal same-sex desires with normative social pressures.
Abstract: This article explores a range of marital ideologies and relationship strategies in the lives of lala (lesbian) women in contemporary Beijing. Although new discourses on same-sex marriage rights and sexual equality are becoming popular in parts of Chinese lala communities, the traditional marriage ideal continues to appear desirable, and it structures same-sex life aspirations as well as social, romantic, and family relationships. The author offers ethnographic data to demonstrate why seemingly oppressive structures retain such significance and overall positive association in lala everyday life and ideology. Narratives of 3 complex relationship strategies demonstrate that marriage is at the core of negotiations that reconcile personal same-sex desires with normative social pressures. Compliant-like conjugal strategies enable subversive possibilities that subtly challenge the status quo while appearing normal. This observation requires a rethinking of notions and meanings of agency, power, and the approach to studying the current global diversity of nonnormative sexualities.
40 citations
Dissertation•
28 May 2013
TL;DR: In this article, the authors focus on the materiality of hospitality situations in an industrial county-level town in south-west China, and its rural peripheries, and demonstrate the movement of structures of habituated hospitality practices from "guest hall" rooms in homes to a plethora of new commercial venues that have emerged in the town during the'reform and opening' period.
Abstract: This thesis focuses on the materiality of hospitality situations in an industrial county- level town in south-west China, and its rural peripheries. Using ethnographic data, it demonstrates the movement of structures of habituated hospitality practices from ‘guest hall’ rooms in homes to a plethora of new commercial venues that have emerged in the town during the ‘reform and opening’ period. The first half of the thesis illustrates how, in the domestic sphere, these layouts serve to create a locale around which the family is both literally and metaphorically arranged, but also as a key site in which the family attempts to manage and control their interactions with non-family guests. In recent years, the expectations that hosting situations should be ever more exuberant in nature (typified by the creation of large amounts of ‘social heat’) has resulted in such gatherings being considered increasingly unsuitable for the home environment, which is progressively being reconceptualised as a location for ‘relaxation’. The second half of the thesis focuses upon the town’s commercial venues, examining both the material environment and social interactions taking place within, to demonstrate the similarities that exist between these spaces and the home’s guest hall. It will be shown that the widespread commodification and de- domestification of hosting situations has brought about a number of changes in the town, including concerns over a lack of co-presence of family members, and an enhanced facility for the creation of socially efficacious relationships that are free of the ties and purview of kin relations. The thesis concludes by proposing the term 'structured hosting' to inform both existing anthropological notions of the home and hospitality, and to extend Bourdieu’s notion of habitus by demonstrating how it can become inscribed upon new social domains.
23 citations
Cites background from "The Anthropology of Chinese Kinship..."
...An entire overview of the anthropology of Chinese kinship theory will not be attempted here, as this has already been provided in a comprehensive article by Santos (2006)....
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...However, as Santos (2006) points out, Freedman’s publications coincided with the peak of Maoism and the period in which mainland China was largely inaccessible to foreign researchers, and as such these two monographs constituted an endeavour in ‘armchair anthropology’....
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...This began with what Santos (2006) categorised as a plethora of differing approaches to kinship, leading to the gradual dominance of Freedman’s lineage paradigm, followed by a period of uncertainty as to the significance and validity of kinship studies, and the subsequent re-emergence of these…...
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TL;DR: This paper showed that female out-migration of women, but not of men, attenuates son preference among those in origin communities in rural China, and the role of female outmigration transcends families with direct ties to migration and extends to the entire village.
Abstract: How does female out-migration reconfigure gender values surrounding son preference in origin communities? We propose that the feminization of migration has the potential to infuse origin communities with economic and ideational changes that may challenge son preference. Rural China provides an interesting setting, both because its unprecedented labor out-migration has increasingly included women and because of its persistent son preference. Using data from rural China and instrumental variable regressions to adjust for potential endogeneity bias, this study shows that out-migration of women, but not of men, attenuates son preference among those in origin communities. The role of female out-migration transcends families with direct ties to migration and extends to the entire village. However, cultural context and family positions within that context condition the role of female migration: specifically, the preferences of individuals in families and villages embedded in strong patrilineal cultural practices are less likely to be shaped by female out-migration.
18 citations
Dissertation•
01 Oct 2009
TL;DR: This paper explored the nature of the childhood experience within contemporary British Chinese households by speaking to parents and children of each family using repeat interviews over a nine-month period, and found that Chinese parents hold strong attachments to 'traditional' Chinese values and norms, which causes domestic issues and problems between parents and their more Westernised offspring.
Abstract: Based on a data set of 72 semi-structured interviews, undertaken with 12 British Chinese families, this PhD sets out to explore the nature of the childhood experience
within contemporary British Chinese households. By speaking to parents and children of each family using repeat interviews over a nine-month period, accounts of family
life and their relationships with one another can be revealed from both generational perspectives.
From this research, there appears to be a similarity between the practices of past and contemporary British Chinese households, which also coincides with accounts from
pre-existing academic literature. Research findings suggest that Chinese parents (regardless of backgrounds and length of UK residency), not only identify themselves as being Chinese, but also hold strong attachments to 'traditional' Chinese values and norms. For some British Chinese families this causes domestic issues and problems between parents and their more Westernised offspring.
However in comparison to the past, some parents alter and modify their Chinese cultural beliefs which then affect their child-rearing methods, intimacy levels and
opportunities for the child's agency. Reasons for this include the parent's own childhood experience, parent's exposure and acceptance of Western practices, as well
as empathy for their child's experience of being a British Chinese citizen. External circumstances such as the social setting and surroundings, the actions of the child as
well as the parent-child relationship itself also influence household relations and operations.
As such, cultural factors alone are not sufficient in explaining and investigating British Chinese families. Instead contemporary British Chinese parenting approaches,
parent-child intimacy levels and children's agency should be seen as an interactive and reciprocal process, that are created by and contingent upon practices within and
outside of the home. By highlighting the many levels to which British Chinese families play out their lives and how members make sense of their relationships and behaviours, this study expands on the current literature that portrays cultural norms as the main explanatory factor for British Chinese household functioning.
16 citations
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