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Premarital Abortion, What Is the Harm? The Responsibilisation of Women’s Pregnancy Among China’s ‘Privileged’ Daughters

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Embodying Middle Class Gender Aspirations

Part of the book series: Gender, Sexualities and Culture in Asia ((GSCA))

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Abstract

In this chapter, I highlight issues around premarital sex, a prevalent practice under the reform among young people, to uncover how it creates new dilemmas for young women of this age as they negotiate between moralism and realism in terms of their premarital sexual conduct. I focus on their narratives about the stigma attached to premarital abortion and women’s interpretations of ‘responsible motherhood’ in order to reveal the specific Chinese characteristics of their rationalisation of reproductive choice.

A version of this chapter was awarded the Early Career Researcher Prize, 2017 by the British Association of Chinese Studies, and was originally published under the same title on the British Journal of Chinese Studies, Vol. 8 (1), January 2018. It is reprinted in this book with permission by the journal.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    News reports within and outside China have shown sexual bribery and scandals rampant among high-ranking officials: officially adultery is deemed intolerable and punishable according to CCP’s disciplinary regulations, which can lead to expulsion (Emia 2015).

  2. 2.

    Sino Weibo is China’s most popular micro-blogging website, whereas Wechat is the most commonly used messaging app used by Mainland Chinese.

  3. 3.

    Though the concept of “youth” varies in different contexts, in China today, the post-1990s and post-1980s generations are often referred to as the “younger generation” (Jeffreys and Yu 2015).

  4. 4.

    According to Wang and Ho (2011), the female virginity complex (chu nü qing jie, 处女情结) is a popular term used to describe how the “fetish of female virginity” remains strong for young Chinese men and women.

  5. 5.

    Juno is an American comedy-drama about a teenage girl confronting an unplanned pregnancy. It has received criticism and praise from members of both the pro-life and pro-choice communities regarding its treatment of abortion.

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    Kailing Xie

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Xie, K. (2021). Premarital Abortion, What Is the Harm? The Responsibilisation of Women’s Pregnancy Among China’s ‘Privileged’ Daughters. In: Embodying Middle Class Gender Aspirations. Gender, Sexualities and Culture in Asia. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-1139-1_3

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