The Inheritance And Changes Of Marriage Customs Since The Founding Of The PRC

Marriage is a sacred commitment. She doesn't only make the human society live and multiply, but also is built on sex, lore and social substantive needs. Marriage customs not only embody the social life in a certain period, but also show the cultural connotation and humanistic generality from niceties. So it's a good carrier for the traditional culture and connotation and humanistic generality research. All customs exist in certain space, and there's no exception to marriage customs; namely, there are different marriage customs in the same region at different times. So the research on marriage customs can contribute to our better understanding of the society and history. In the present study, the author adopts field investigation combined with documents analysis to describe and analyze the inheritance and changes of marriage customs since the liberation based on the investigation of Guanshuai Village and surrounding villages in the northeast of Shandong Province-a sensitive reform zone. The research shows that the ideology field, especially the national decree, influences the marriage customs greatly and profoundly. But the premise is that the decree must be to the people's heart and can bring happiness to them; naturally, they would support it; on the contrary, they would abandon it. The economic growth also influences the marriage customs deeply. All kinds of new furniture, house hold appliances and the adoption of various techniques in the wedding ceremony bring joy to the traditional marriage. The ceremony also is changing, for example, the name is the same as before, but the content is completely different. People's thoughts and concepts also have enormous changes. The implement of Marriage Law enhances women's social status, and drives the male superiority to transit to gender equality. Social reform and implement of family planning policy erases the more-children-more-happiness concept from the historical stage. The openness of thoughts encourages the young generation to escape from the old disciplines and create something new based on the material richness. Nonetheless, traditional concepts still play an important role, and they are being adjusted; perhaps that is the great of them. To some extents, this reform is lagged.