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Re-examining the Impact of the 1950 Marriage Law: State Improvisation, Local Initiative and Rural Family Change

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

Neil J. Diamant
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Many peasants misunderstand the Marriage Law. They blindly emphasize that the Marriage Law “liberated” them. This is the case for some women in particular, who have become very unconventional and dissolute in their sexual relations. They have several partners at once, and often switch among them, choosing whichever man appeals to them on that particular day. They also recklessly flirt with many men.

We [provincial authorities] demand the basic-level cadres desist from monitoring adultery and sex, forcing confessions, humiliating and tying people up, hanging, beating, and organizing struggle sessions [against women seeking divorce].

Type
Research Article
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 161 , March 2000 , pp. 171 - 198
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 2000

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References

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3. Challenging “conventional wisdom” is always a difficult task given that it is rarely chronicled in same way as an argument associated with a particular individual. My argument that there is a conventional wisdom concerning the law is based on conversations with junior and senior faculty whose research had nothing to do with the Marriage Law, women or even rural society. Most mentioned the works to be discussed below.

4. See, for instance, Ann Anagnost's recommendations for books and articles for courses dealing with gender in China. Her list includes many of the “classics” on Chinese women by Andors, Croll, Diamond, Honig, Johnson, Stacey and Wolf, but does not mention books by Meijer or Yang. On the subject of “Women and Revolution,” she writes that “since the 1970s, a number of studies have used documentary evidence to evaluate the degree to which the Chinese revolution has fulfilled what Western feminists had always assumed to be its radical promise to women. These studies all focus on the issue of how patriarchal structures have been reproduced and even strengthened under socialism.” Oddly, Anagnost does not criticize these works for their Western bias, although they took as their starting point “what Western feminists had always assumed” about the revolution. See her “Transformation of gender in Modern China,” in Gender and Anthropology: Critical Reviews for Research and Teaching (Washington, D.C.: American Anthropological Association, 1989), pp. 313–342.Google Scholar

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74. Given that this report was written by officials in Beijing and is critical of collectivization (and the Marriage Law), it is tempting to suggest that it was intended to criticize proponants of rapid collectivization, Unfortunately, I do not know the politics leading to its compilation and publication.

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76. Ibid.

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78. Ibid. p. 81.

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80. Information on exactly how common this was is not available at the moment. However, I would suggest that the existance of special reports on the subject (which requires investigation and the allocation of scarce state resources) attests to a growing problem in the countryside.

81. CXA 16–65–B1 (09 1958), p. 171.Google Scholar Emphasis mine.

82. Ibid. p. 172.

83. Ibid.

84. See, for instance, Anhui sheng gaoji renmin fayuan (Anhui Province Supreme Court) (ed.). Shenpan jishi (A Chronicle of Judgements)Google Scholar (Anhui renmin chubanshe, 1959)Google Scholar; Yuke, Fei, “Luetan chuli nongcun diqu hunyin wenti de tihui” (“A brief discussion of how marriage problems in rural areas are handled”), Zhengfa xuexi (Legal Studies), Vol. 5–6 (1958), pp. 56–58Google Scholar; Gu, Zhou, “Lun hunyin fa banbu hou jinian lai chuli lihun anjian de yuanzi” (“Principles for how divorce cases should be handled several years after the promulgation of the Marriage Law”), Zhengfa yanjiu, Vol. 5 (1956), pp. 42–45.Google Scholar

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