Notes on Modern Marriage

Abstract

Modern marriage is almost a contradiction. Modernity has little room for the age-old institution called marriage. Else the latter needs to be redefined before it will get into its surroundings. The ancients such as the Romans defined marriage as “the union of a man and a woman entraining the obligation to live in inseparable communion.” The Chinese used to have almost exactly the same notion. This of course has now only an ethnographical interest. Far more acceptable is undoubtedly the definition formulated by Westermarck over 30 years ago, that marriage is “a more or less durable connection between male and female lasting beyond the mere act of propagation till after the birth of the offspring.” Yet, how many modern marriages will abide by this definition? A glance at the statistics of divorce and of childless marriages wherever obtainable at once gives the answer.

(Originally published in The China Critic, Vol. II, No. 9, February 28, 1929, by the name of: Quentin Pan)