Irish Times on marriage norms in China
01/02/2017 08:55 AM
Women in China: Not playing the marriage game
The second in a four-part depth series reveals how women are pressurised to marry early
Wed, Dec 28, 2016, 01:00
Clifford Coonan in Beijing
At matchmaking markets in China parents post profiles of their daughters in the hope of finding a suitable suitor. Photograph: Getty Images
A 29-year-old friend from Heilongjiang province starts thinking up the story she is going to tell her parents about her new, imaginary, boyfriend, in the weeks before she travels north to her family for Chinese New Year.
The clash between a rapidly-urbanising society and traditional Confucian values of filial piety and acceptance of a daughter’s traditional meek role means millennial Chinese women have major emotional pressures to handle when they make the annual pilgrimage home during China’s most important holiday.
The toughest challenge is coping with being a sheng nü or “leftover woman”, which refers to any woman over the age of 27 who is unmarried and applies to the swelling ranks of women who want education and economic independence and who do not wish to follow the traditional paths set out by their parents.
Full article here>>
The second in a four-part depth series reveals how women are pressurised to marry early
Wed, Dec 28, 2016, 01:00
Clifford Coonan in Beijing
At matchmaking markets in China parents post profiles of their daughters in the hope of finding a suitable suitor. Photograph: Getty Images
A 29-year-old friend from Heilongjiang province starts thinking up the story she is going to tell her parents about her new, imaginary, boyfriend, in the weeks before she travels north to her family for Chinese New Year.
The clash between a rapidly-urbanising society and traditional Confucian values of filial piety and acceptance of a daughter’s traditional meek role means millennial Chinese women have major emotional pressures to handle when they make the annual pilgrimage home during China’s most important holiday.
The toughest challenge is coping with being a sheng nü or “leftover woman”, which refers to any woman over the age of 27 who is unmarried and applies to the swelling ranks of women who want education and economic independence and who do not wish to follow the traditional paths set out by their parents.
Full article here>>