| Litigation divorce is an important epitome of social transformation in modern China,which is intertwined with many complicated details,such as the mixture of old and new ideas,the change of old and new systems and the game of interests of the parties.A detailed investigation on this issue will help to get a glimpse of the real situation of family life,marriage concept and divorce judicial practice of both sexes in the Republic of China.However,the existing research rarely regards women as the research subject and lacks care for female plaintiffs in divorce proceedings.Therefore,from the standpoint of female plaintiffs,it is a new perspective to explore the divorce problem in the Republic of China by sorting out the divorce cases in which women are plaintiffs in Shenbao,observing women’s words and deeds,deeply analyzing their litigation strategies and trial discourse expressions,so as to outlining the living situation and litigation situation of middle and lower class women in the Republic of China.The divorce cases in Shenbao from 1927 to 1937,in which women were plaintiffs,are an important window to observe the divorce proceedings of women in the Republic of China.Through careful combing of the cases,this paper makes a comprehensive investigation on the marital nature,identity composition and reasons for the divorce of female plaintiffs,and observes the thinking concept and marital situation of female individuals according to their words and actions.During the Republic of China,the traditional marriage system,which went deep into folk customs,still dominated the thinking and actions of ordinary people.As far as the marriage nature of female plaintiffs is concerned,arranged marriage is still the mainstream marriage mode in civil society.At the same time,there are many abnormal marriage types under the normalized arranged marriage.In addition,the main identities of female plaintiffs are women workers,maids and other low-paid professional groups and students and other educated groups.The main reasons for their divorce are marital abuse,neglect of support and hidden diseases.Women’s active divorce is their initiative to seek freedom of marriage through judicial power,and the increase of such lawsuits objectively reflects the awakening of women’s subjective consciousness involved in litigation.However,it seems to be found from the analysis of cases that litigation divorce is not so much a symbol of women’s awakening of rights consciousness,but rather a livelihood strategy or means they adopt when facing the crisis of survival.The legal practice of women’s litigation and divorce has its own unique litigation strategy and discourse logic.The image of female plaintiffs in the judicial scene is different from the stereotype of silence and aphasia in the traditional context.They insist on divorce appeals in the judicial field,actively mediate with judges,make full use of their gender roles and legal status,gain litigation advantages with strategic words and deeds,and strive for their own interests to the maximum extent.In the male-dominated judicial field,they hired lawyers to improve their weak position in the trial,sought the help of women’s associations to build momentum for themselves,and adopted illegal means outside the law to achieve their litigation purposes.However,the case shows that the discourse expression of the weak and conservative women at the grass-roots level still shows their traditional gender concepts and ways of thinking,which embodies the entanglement of women’s old and new values in the transitional era.At the same time,from the discourse expression of female plaintiffs’ defenders,it seems that women at the bottom have reached a certain level of understanding and application of the law,However,the common demands for alimony by women involved in litigation show that their litigation motives are mixed with many economic factors.They do not use judicial weapons to solve emotional disputes,,but use legal tools to absorb economic benefits.Even if women show full initiative in the litigation field,however,under the background the legal system has not been completely changed,grass-roots justice is full of many variables,which in turn leads to many difficulties in the road to divorce litigation for women.Due to the strong “order complex”of government,in order to maintain the stability of family relations and even social order,the usual attitude of judicial personnel towards divorce cases is to strive for reconciliation and carefully judge divorce to avoid litigation.Judicial personnel in divorce cases inherit the concept of gender equality in the traditional era,and put the traditional value concept of favoring men into litigation practice.In addition,the problem of proof in judicial practice and women’s consideration of litigation costs have created a difficult situation for women to divorce in judicial practice.Thus,both the female plaintiff’s active struggle and the judge’s trial of divorce cases reflect the judicial practice of divorce legal system in the Republic of China deviated from its goal to some extent. |
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