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Relationship Ethics

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Television and Dating in Contemporary China

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Abstract

This chapter examines the changing ethics in personal relationships by focusing on young people’s understandings of traditional Confucian and socialist morality as well as an emerging new ethics within diversified forms of dating and relationships. As Ahmed (The Promise of Happiness, Duke University Press, Durham; 2010) indicates in the work The Promise of Happiness, a happy relationship is often seen to be shaped by a virtuous self (pp. 205, 208). The interpretations of relationship ethics define Chinese youth’s values and practices in respect of love and intimacy, which may further imply a changing understanding of personal happiness in the post-reform era.

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  1. Renmin University of China, Beijing, China

    Chao Yang

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Recommended Readings

Recommended Readings

  • Ahmed, S. (2010) The Promise of Happiness. Durham and London: Duke University Press.

  • Ben-Ze’ev, A. (2004) Love Online: Emotions on the Internet. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

  • Farrer, J. (2002) Opening up: Youth Sex Culture and Market Reform in Shanghai. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

  • Farrer, J. & Sun, Z. X. (2003) Extramarital Love in Shanghai. The China Journal. 50, pp. 1–36.

  • Huang, Y., Smith, K. & Pan, S. (2011) Changes and Correlates in Multiple Sexual Partnerships among Chinese Adult Women – Population-based Surveys in 2000 and 2006. AIDS Care: Psychological and Socio-medical Aspects of AIDS/HIV. 23 (1), pp. 96–104.

  • Jamieson, L. (1999) Intimacy Transformed? A Critical Look at the ‘Pure Relationship’. Sociology. 33 (3), pp. 477–494.

  • Lange, R., Houran, J. & Li, S. (2015) Dyadic Relationship Values in Chinese Online Daters: Love American Style? Sexuality & Culture. 19 (1), pp. 190–215.

  • Mendus, S. (2000) Feminism and Emotion: Readings in Moral and Political Philosophy. Hampshire: Macmillan.

  • Osburg, J. (2013) Anxious Wealth: Money and Morality among China’s New Rich. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.

  • Pan, S. (2006a) Transformations in the Primary Life Cycle: The Origins and Nature of China’s Sexual Revolution. In: E. Jeffreys, ed. Sex and Sexuality in China. Oxon: Routledge, pp. 21–42.

  • Pei, Y. (2011) Multiple Sexual Relationships as a New Lifestyle: Young Women’s Sexuality in Contemporary Shanghai. Women’s Studies International Forum. 34 (5), pp. 401–410.

  • Xiao, S. (2011) The ‘Second-Wife’ Phenomenon and the Relational Construction of Class-Coded Masculinities in Contemporary China. Men and Masculinities. 14 (5), pp. 607–627.

  • Zha, B. & Geng, W. (1992) Sexuality in Urban China. The Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs. 28, pp. 1–20.

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Yang, C. (2017). Relationship Ethics. In: Television and Dating in Contemporary China. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-3987-4_4

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