"Bingjia" Marriage:A Study On The Changes Of Family Structure In The Process Of Urbanization

The marriage pattern in rural China has always been the focus of academic circles.The choice of marriage form is not only affected by individual factors,but also restricted by national policies,economic development level and folk culture.In recent years,influenced by the "one-child" policy,a new type of marriage has emerged in the suburbs of Suzhou,that is,"Bingjia" marriage.Its main features are:no marriage;bilateral residence;double line inheritance;bilateral inheritance and pension.This paper mainly adopts the way of village investigation,and collects data through semi-structured interview and participatory observation.Firstly,This paper describes the current situation of marriage and family development in Jincun and why the "Bingjia" marriage comes into being;secondly,based on the four aspects of property transmission,living style,maintenance obligation and housework cooperation,it gives a detailed description of the form of "Bingjia" marriage in Jincun,and analyzes the connotation of "Bingjia" marriage;then it compares six existing marriage forms in rural society with the analysis framework of four factors of marriage form The connotation of the concept.Through the research and analysis of the causes and marriage connotation of the "Bingjia" marriage in Jincun,this paper can draw the following conclusions: First,"Bingjia" marriage was born in a specific stage of rural urbanization process,which caters to the local filial piety culture and the concept of inheriting the family.At the same time,it also deals with the follow-up problems brought by the one-child policy.It is a common choice made by the two generations for family development in the process of urbanization in developed areas.Second,"Bingjia" marriage gives birth to a "two line" family moving towards cooperation.Although the structure,living mode and scale of rural families are becoming smaller and smaller,it can not be simply equated with the "nuclear family" in western modernization theory.Instead,we should be more sensitive to the changes of family relations,power,function and concept in pace with urbanization.From the perspective of family relations,intergenerational relations still occupy an important position,the in law relationship has risen to the same position as the patriarchal relationship,and the relationship between husband and wife has gradually become equal.In terms of family power,"Bingjia" marriage promotes women ’s status,the wife gets equal discourse power with her husband,and the family power changes from centralization to duality,which leads to the formation of dual family structure.In the aspect of function realization,the marriage arrangement of two-way inheritance and two-way pension enables the parents of the woman not to worry about no successor,nor to be trapped by the pension problem in the future,which solves the worries of the daughter family.At the same time,the dual family structure can develop the family,the concentrated family resources can occupy a favorable position for the families in the suburban areas in the wave of urbanization to realize the class leap.In terms of family concept,the marriage and residence mode of bilateral residence gives couples more choices of residence,which makes the relationship between husband and wife more balanced and the structure of dual family more obvious.At the same time,the daily contact between the wife and her family after marriage has gradually reversed the concept of single family in people’s mind,and can accept the dual family psychologically.