Negotiations and Compromises

Presentation

The phenomenon of internal migration have a major impact on rural China, with people leaving the countryside to work in the cities. In this context, marriage practices are undergoing significant changes.

Through an ethnographic study carried out in a village in northern China in the 2010s, the author examines how the marriage practices of young villagers reflect the search for a balance between their individual desire, particularly for emancipation, and the family and social expectations of their environment of origin: to marry and perpetuate the family line. These changes rarely challenge the patrilineal kinship system. It is this readjustment of practices that enables the institution of marriage to be maintained in contemporary rural China.

Auteur

Renyou Hou is an anthropologist, CNRS research fellow and member of the Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire Solidarités, Sociétés, Territoires - Centre d'anthropologie sociale (LISST-Cas, UMR 5193). His research focuses on three main themes: family, gender and kinship in contemporary China; health and globalisation; medically assisted reproduction and surrogate motherhood.

260 pages
16 x 24 cm
Publication : 04/12/2024
ISBN : 9782858314553