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

Fri, March 17, 5:15 to 7:15pm, Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel, Floor: Mezzanine, Peel

Session Submission Type: Organized Panel

Abstract

The papers in this panel explore new conceptions of romantic love and emerging forms of intimate relationships in China, Vietnam, and Indonesia. Since the 1980s, patterns of marriage and courtship have undergone massive shifts across East and Southeast Asia. Some of these shifts are related to new marriage legislation, others to population policies or more widely available educational and employment opportunities for young women. Demographic research has documented a striking trend across Asia away from a once-common pattern of universal marriage (cf. Jones 2005). Women, in particular, are increasingly putting off marriage, and in some cases choosing not to marry at all. Less dramatic statistics with regard to non-marriage are evidenced in the examples of Indonesia and China, though the shift to later marriage among women is nonetheless marked.
Changing marriage patterns in East and Southeast Asia have been accompanied by changing ideas of romantic love and of ethical norms surrounding premarital and extra-marital intimacy. Young people increasingly view romantic love and personal fulfillment as the basis for conjugal relationships as distinct from collective concerns of kinship and economy (cf. (Hirsch & Wardlow 2006, Lipsett 2004). In presenting recent examples from China, Indonesia, and Vietnam, the papers in this panel consider not only changes in marital patterns themselves; that is, new forms of arranged marriage, love marriages, live-in lovers, and extra marital relationships, but also concomitant shifts in understandings and expressions of romantic love.

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