Analyzing The Emerging Single Urban Women's " Culture"

An increasing number of Chinese women, especially women in big cities like Shanghai, remain single after the traditionally "marked" marriageable age of twenty-something. These women are called "The 3S women:Seventies, Single, Stuck", or simply the "leftover women" by our society.Are they really the "leftovers"? Why, of all women, do they remain single, and especially in a familism-oriented country like China? What do they think of this "leftover" label and their status and what are their concepts and concerns in terms of mate selection?The "leftover woman" is a hot topic in present Chinese society. A large number of studies have been conducted on this topic, yet most of them are done from the sociological perspective with text analysis methods. Quantitative or qualitative methodology is seldom employed for close and in-depth investigation.Gender relationship is an important theme of intercultural communication. According to Henry Triandis's definition of subcultures (which is also termed "micro-culture" by some other scholars), with this group of single women's shared factors such as sex, marital status, residence, education, occupation, resources, leisurely life and so on, a unique micro-culture seems to have been constructed against the main stream social culture. So what specifically are its "cultural" features?To ensure this and related questions, thirty single women in Shanghai were interviewed and first-hand materials were collected to conduct qualitative study and case analysis. Starting from the definitions of culture by Triandis and Carley H. Dodd, Kuo-shu Yang's individual traditionality and modernity scale was employed as the theoretical foundation, and then this urban single women phenomenon was examined as a special micro-culture; Further, the reasons for its formation in its contrasting main stream cultural context is explored, as well as its patterns of communication, conflict, contradiction and compromise with the latter. Goffman's situated-identity theory was then applied to study this group's values and identity, after which conclusions are made about the characteristics of this micro-culture.This study consists primarily of four aspects:examination of the social cultural background against which this "leftover" women's culture is formed; the analysis of reasons for its formation using comparative study between traditional and modern gender relationship and mate selection theory; analysis of this group's self-responded universal and general values and identity; and finally exploration of the in-depth characteristics and essence of this micro-culture from the perspective of intercultural communication. This study carries both theoretical and practical significance.This study suggests that the core of this new emerging urban single women's micro-culture is the intercultural conflict between traditionality and modernity as well as oriental and western culture. Content-analysis of the interview data revealed that the conflicted concept and disparate conduct between convention and modernity, and "Chinese" and Western style was found in practically every aspect of their life. Suggestions for further researches and applications are also provided.