Romantic Love and the Marriage Market in Southwest China

• In Event: 150. Modern Intimacies: Romantic Love and Conjugal Projects in East and Southeast Asia

Abstract

China has a disproportionately high male to female sex ratio, which puts men, especially men of lower socioeconomic status or those from minority ethnic backgrounds, in disadvantageous positions in the marriage market. At the same time, increasing numbers of women from ethnic minority areas of Southwest China have been draw to Chinese cities for work, a situation which has resulted in the loss of young eligible women in those areas and in the instability of existing marriages. Other ethnic women marry, run away with, or are sold to Han majority men who appear to have more resources than local men. Ethnic minority men, then, have four ways to find marriage partners: find a wife across the border in Myanmar where the economic situation is even worse; marry older women with children who have divorced or lost their husbands; use religion (especially Christianity) to secure their marriages; or attempt increase their own wealth and status. A parallel shift is the increasing mentioning of “romantic love” as the basis of marriage, in contrast to the older generation who often cite labor and land as paths to secure marriages.
This paper explores these and related shifts in contemporary marriage among an ethnic minority population in Southwest China. By exploring the socio-economic undercurrents of marriage and the subtle references to deep personal connections between the husband and wife in contemporary unions, this paper aims to reveal that “romantic love” only appears as a fitting discourse when the marriage market is dominated by fickleness and uncertainties.

Author

• Keping Wu, Sun Yat-sen University