Publication of L'Aile d'or: a sociological study of the Chinese family system

First published in English in 1947, this fictionalized work by Chinese anthropologist Lin Yaohua (1910-2000) marked a whole generation of sinologists and researchers. Not only is it one of the few texts written by a native about rural China before the arrival of the Communist Party in 1949, but it also uses an original medium - fiction - to depict the most fundamental social structure in China: its "family system". We discover that the Chinese notion of "family - clan/lineage", very different from the "nuclear" Western family, goes beyond the patrilineal group and relies heavily on women. The story, centered on the relationship between two brothers-in-law - one married to the other's sister - offers an illuminating example of this primordial pair, which has been at the heart of much anthropological work.



This book, available for the first time in French, gives a striking picture of the depth and breadth of Chinese kinship ties, leading us to question our disenchanted modern world, where the family has shrunk to the bone.