Abstract
This chapter explores the stigma faced by single women (‘shengnü’) in their 20s in mainland China through theories of intimacy, developed by Western sociologists including Illouz and Giddens. By analysing Chinese-language posts on the community Q&A website Zhihu, evidence of the emergence of an individualised intimacy is found, but the non-negotiable constraints of family and fear of ‘wretchedness’ in old age are too compelling for the individualisation hypothesis to be accepted wholesale. The People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) welfare policies work at the level of families, not individuals, creating hard breaks to individualisation and making family compulsory. To understand the architecture of choice and the pains of love in the PRC, the intersection of the individualisation in education and labour with family-focussed state welfare policies must be considered.
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Notes
- 1.
The ‘productivist state’ is one in which state welfare such as health insurance is offered where it is anticipated to promote or protect economic growth (e.g. Hwang 2011).
- 2.
Available: http://www.china.org.cn/china/LegislationsForm2001-2010/2011-02/11/content_21897930.htm. Accessed: 04/04/2018.
- 3.
Available: http://www.china.org.cn/government/laws/2007-04/17/content_1207404.htm. Accessed: 04/04/2018.
- 4.
This status can be changed through marriage or meeting the (typically financial and residential) criteria of the receiving area, but this is limited by quotas (Young 2013).
- 5.
By ‘urban’ I refer specifically to women who have a household registration in an urban centre, rather than any women living in the cities; ‘rural’ likewise refers to registration, rather than physical location. For the complexities of China’s household registration, or hukou system, see Young (2013).
- 6.
This methodology does fall within the purview of the British Sociological Association’s ethical guidelines for digital research, available online here: https://www.britsoc.co.uk/media/24309/bsa_statement_of_ethical_practice_annexe.pdf
- 7.
The elderly childless are generally pitied in China, and were one of the core demographics identified as deserving of welfare in the ‘Five Guarantee households’ in the earliest building of state safety net in the People’s Republic of China (Davis-Friedman 1991: 87–101).
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Appendix
Appendix
Translations of the questions analysed
Zhihu data correct as of: 04/04/2018
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Q1. Must women marry and start a family? Is it really miserable to be a single woman in old age?
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Q2. I am a leftover woman, facing a boyfriend that I’ve never had any feelings for, what should I do?
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Q3. Single for a long time, should I despair of love?
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Q4. I’m 22 years old and I think it’s not possible for me to marry, what should I do?
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Q5. 20 years old and I’ve never fallen in love. Is that wretched?
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Q6. I’m a 27-year-old female Masters student, is it really going to be hard to find a partner?
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Q7. I am 27 this year, female. Due to a narrow circle of friends, and that all the people I come into contact with at work are women, I’m seeking ways I can break through my current [single] situation?
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Q8. 26-year-old single woman is just focusing on getting a good career, developing naturally, but family is worrying about marriage: Why?
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Q9. I’m single woman and 25 years old. Should I study overseas or work here in China? Since the dawn of time, why is the biggest problem not how to study or work, but how to find a partner?
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Q10. Older leftover woman without work, how can things continue like this?
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Lamont, A. (2020). Wretched? Women’s Questions of Love and Labour in the People’s Republic of China. In: Carter, J., Arocha, L. (eds) Romantic Relationships in a Time of ‘Cold Intimacies’. Palgrave Macmillan Studies in Family and Intimate Life. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29256-0_8
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