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Handbook on the Family and Marriage in China

Handbook on the Family and Marriage in China

Handbooks of Research on Contemporary China series
Edited by Xiaowei Zang, College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, City University of Hong Kong and Lucy Xia Zhao, The School of East Asian Studies, The University of Sheffield, UK

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Extent: c 448 pp
Hardback Price: $270.00 Web: $243.00
Publication Date: December 2017
ISBN: 978 1 78536 818 9
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  • Asian Studies
  • Asian Social Policy
  • Politics and Public Policy
  • Asian Politics
  • Social Policy and Sociology
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More Information

This Handbook advances research on the family and marriage in China by providing readers with a multidisciplinary and multifaceted coverage of major issues in one single volume. It addresses the major conceptual, theoretical and methodological issues of marriage and family in China and offers critical reflections on both the history and likely progression of the field.

By examining the traditional ideas of marriage and family in China against new concepts, state policy changes and market reforms, the Handbook exposes the impact these changes are having on familial structures, traditional institutions and marital ideals. The eminent contributors include established scholars and emerging stars in this area of research, ranging from Australia, China, Canada, Europe, Hong Kong, Taiwan, the UK and the US.

Working as a comprehensive and convenient reference for future research, this Handbook provides an extensive overview of the key issues in the field. An excellent reference tool for researchers and students of sociology, anthropology, public policy, family studies and China studies, this Handbook provides the knowledge for further research to flourish.

Critical Acclaim

‘This comprehensive Handbook draws together reviews of the literature and historically and theoretically informed cutting edge research in what is sure to be the definitive text on marriage and family in China in the early twenty-first century. The editors have assembled a global dream team that addresses virtually every topic in the field, including sensitive issues such as globalization of marriage, family dynamics, intimacy, sexuality and transgender marriage. Family and marriage in Taiwan and Hong Kong are also addressed.’
– Thomas Gold, University of California, Berkeley, US

‘This is a masterly work. The two editors, brilliant and experienced experts and scholars on Chinese society, have drawn together a superb team that includes some of the foremost international specialists in their respective fields. The number of relevant topics covered is truly breath-taking. The result is a brilliant, balanced, beautifully integrated, insightful, humane and readable specialist work, which is unsurpassed in its field, and likely to remain so for a long time. I recommend it very strongly indeed.’
– Colin Mackerras, Griffith University, Australia

Contributors

Contributors include: I. Attané, H. Chiang, A. Chow, W. Ding, M. Dowling, L. Eklund, M.W. Feldman, X.-T. Feng, Z. Feng, C. Frazier, A.M. Gaetano, S. Gietel-Basten, W. Jankowiak, Q. Jiang, M.-H. Lee, L. Li, S. Li, D. Miller, A. Phoenix, D.L Poston, J. Ribbens McCarthy, R. Skaggs, J. Song, L. Song, K.F. Ting, P. Wang, X. Wang, Y.R. Xia, A. Xu, X. Xu, X. Xu, W.-S. Yang, G. Yu, X. Zang, L. Zhao, J. Zhang, W. Zhang, H. Zhu, L. Zhao, J. Zuo















Contents

Contents:

1. State of the field: The family and marriage in China
Xiaowei Zang and Lucy Zhao

2. The effects of demographic change on marriage and the family in China
Dudley L. Poston

3. Changes in Chinese urban family structure
Yan Ruth Xia and Anqi Xu

4. Mate selection, intimacy, and marital love in urban China
William Jankowiak

5. Mate selection in rural China
Jing Song and Lulu Li

6. Foreign-related marriages in contemporary China
Pan Wang

7. Educational homogamy
Lijun Song, Rachel Skaggs, and Cleothia Frazier

8. China’s ‘Leftover Women’: Myths and realities
Arianne M. Gaetano

9. Son preference and marriage squeeze in China
Shuzhuo Li, Quanbao Jiang, and Marcus Feldman

10. Marriage squeeze and mate selection
Lisa Eklund and Isabelle Attané

11. China’s one-child policy and the changing family
Xiaotian Feng, Dudley L. Poston, and Xiaotao Wang

12. Family planning and fertility transition in China
Stuart Gietel-Basten

13. Fertility patterns on family finance in rural China
Weili Ding

14. Parental investment in children’s human capital in China
Ming-Hsuan Lee

15. Childlessness and the well-being of Chinese seniors
Weiguo Zhang

16. Gender patterns in financial support to parents in China
Haiyan Zhu

17. Filial piety and old-age support in China
Zhanlian Feng

18. Childhood, children, and family lives in China
Jane Ribbens McCarthy and Ann Phoenix with Guo Yu and Xu Xiaoli

19. Globalization and international adoption from China
Monica Dowling

20. Marital construction of family decision-making power
Jiping Zuo

21. Marital instability in post-reform China
Xiaohe Xu and Donna Miller

22. Marriage and suicide among rural women
Jie Zhang

23. Death in the family – Bereavement and mourning in China
Amy Chow

24. Transgender in China
Howard Chiang

25. Family and marriage in Taiwan
Wen-Shan Yang

26. The marriage institution in Hong Kong: Past and present
Kwok-fai Ting

Index