Social Change In Rural China Marriage And Family Studies (1950-1985)

In the stage from the founding of new China to early days of the reform and opening up (1950-1949), China's rural society has experienced a series of major changes, such as the land reform, the socialist transformation, the people's commune movement, the three years of natural disasters, the establishment of the management system based on"three-levels ownership, with the team as the base", the"four clearings", the"Cultural Revolution", the establishment of household contract responsibility system. Each of the major changes have had impact on China's rural society to a certain extent, either had a positive effect to stimulate the development of it, or had a devastating blow to cause an economic setback; sometimes, they impacted on small number of people, sometimes impacted on the majority of people; sometimes they had significant political impact, but little economical and social impacts, sometimes, had little political impact, but significant economical and social impacts. For the large number of factors that reflected changes of rural social life, there is no doubt that the rural marriage and family is one of the most important one.Marriage problem in rural areas. Firstly, the paper discusses the preparation phase of the marriages: meeting, choosing of potential spouse and reaching the marriage age. China's rural marriage ritual had undergone development stages through arranged marriages to matchmaker to introduction by acquaintances to free love. All forms of marriage forms were observed and intervened in the thirty-five years from the founding of new China to early days of the reform and opening up. Overall, the introduction by acquaintances was the main method during this period. When choosing a spouse, it seemed that the matching of the social status of the two families was one of the most important factors that are considered by young people. Before the reform, the social group of the other spouse was a factor that could never be overlooked. About the age of marriage, age of both male and female when first marriage takes place tended to increase over time in those 35 years. The ritual before the actual marriage was generally in three stages: proposition, meeting and engagement. Secondly, in rural Chinese society, the importance of wedding ceremony was more important than registration at the local civil administration departments. Only after the young couple had had their wedding ceremony, could they be recognized by their society. Also among the changes, the changes of gifts to the bride's family by the bridegroom's family and the bride's dower were also very significant. They changed from many different forms to only one form, i.e. cash. Thirdly, the paper discusses the dissolution of marriage that is the divorce. Since the 1950s, China's rural areas had maintained a very low divorce rate, which is different from today. In analyzing the many causes of low divorce rate, the rural social networks and the degree of legal regulation was one of the most important reasons. Since the late 1970s, the divorce rate has increased significantly with the change in divorce mediation process, increased population mobility, change of mass media and quality of life in rural society. Finally, the marriage circle will be discussed. China's rural social marriage circle had changed through a circular changing process in the thirty-five years since the founding of New China. The outer ring of marriage changed from big to small, then back to big again; the core of the marriage ring changed from cohesion to averaged, then cohesion again. The marriage circles were similar between those in the1950s and those in the early days of the reform and opening up. Discussion about the family in the rural areas. Firstly, the structure and size of the family will be discussed. From viewing the family structure, the family appeared have the trend of miniaturization since the beginning of the 20th century. Since the founding of new China, the proportion of nuclear families and the stem families occupy the majority of the families because of early separation in rural brothers. Judging from the family size, the number of people per household became less in the 1950s and the early days of the reform and opening up. But from the year of 1962 to the end of 1970s, the family size underwent a growing period. Then, discussion is about the family functions and family relations. Generally, the rural families had a number of functions such as economic function, having children and sexual function, education and support functions, maintenance functions, and others. And these family functions were shown in very different ways in the thirty-five years since the founding of New China. The discussion mainly focused on the relationships between husband and wife, parent and child, and mother and daughter. Overall, the direction of the relationship development in the family tended to democratize, the status of women and children continued to improve. Finally, the discussion is about the family cycle and the separation of families. After the founding of New China, the growth cycle of the family showed a new feature, Lineal joint family no longer existed. The growth cycle of the family changed from complicated to simple. The separation of the household was linked to the growth cycle of the family, the earlier the separation of households, the shorter the growth cycle of the family.By the discussion about the 35 years'marriage and family life in Chinese rural areas, this paper argues the following points. First of all, the state had an obvious influence on the marriage and family life in rural society. The impact had caused the marginalization of traditional social hierarchy and social structure, which was based on the traditional kinship. The private lives of the rural people were also significantly affected. Secondly, in this period, social change and social continuity were reflected in marriage and family life in rural Chinese society after the founding of new China. These two diametrically opposite points mutually coexisted in those 35 years, and were observed through out the whole rural society. Finally, the establishment of marriage and family was an important way to structure the social network and create acquaintance social network. After the founding of New China, it should be said that the existing network of rural areas did vanish, but lived on in the forms of marriage and family in the rural community. In the early days of the reform and opening up, the expansion of rural social networks, at the same time, the network became looser and more fragile. During the establishment of a new rural society in the modern time, it certainly deserves further consideration.