Description
Book SynopsisChina's patrilineal and patriarchal tradition has encouraged a long-standing preference for male heirs within families. Coupled with China's birth-planning policy, this has led to a severe gender imbalance. But a counterpattern is emerging in rural China where a noticeable proportion of young couples have willingly accepted having a single daughter. They are doing so even as birth-planning policies are being relaxed and having a second child, and the opportunity of having a son, is a new possibility.
Choosing Daughters explores this critical, yet largely overlooked, reproductive pattern emerging in China's demographic landscape. Lihong Shi delves into the social, economic, and cultural forces behind the complex decision-making process of these couples to unravel their life goals and childrearing aspirations, the changing family dynamics and gender relations, and the intimate parent–daughter ties that have engendered this drastic transformation of reproductive choice. She reveals a leading-edge social force that fosters China's recent fertility decline, namely pursuit of a modern family and successful childrearing achieved through having a small family. Through this discussion, Shi refutes the conventional understanding of a universal preference for sons and discrimination against daughters in China and counters claims of continuing resistance against China's population control program.
Trade Review"With rich ethnographic detail, beautiful writing, and rigorous marshalling of evidence,
Choosing Daughters presents a nuanced portrait of how and why gender roles and family life have changed in a Chinese village. Lihong Shi offers a bold challenge to widespread assumptions about bias against daughters in rural China." -- Vanessa Fong * Amherst College *
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Choosing Daughters gives us key insights into the complexity of reproductive choices in rural China. Through meticulous ethnographic research and a firm grasp of big issues, Lihong Shi shows us not only why some Chinese families choose—in fact, desire—to have only one daughter, but also how ideas about son preference, elder care, familial intimacy, and filial piety are being redefined." -- Rubie Watson * Harvard University *
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Choosing Daughters is a persuasive, eloquent study of the changing gender roles. Full of surprises and new vistas for investigation, it is ethnography at its best." -- William Jankowiak * University of Nevada, Las Vegas *
"[T]his book is a delight to read....[It] is a persuasive and eloquent study of the changing gender roles in Chinese society. It is a ground-breaking account of the cultural transformation of northern Chinese society whose people have come to re-evaluate kinship bonds and to value a daughter over a son. This is the kind of book that opens up new vistas. Full of surprises, it is ethnography as it should be." -- William Jankowiak *
China Information *
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Choosing Daughters is an interesting and innovative book that examines the transformations of patrilineal and patriarchal traditions in rural China through the lens of reproductive preferences and child-bearing decisions...This book enriches our understanding of rural Chinese families in general and their new reproductive patterns in the post-reform period in particular."––Yinni Peng,
Pacific AffairsTable of ContentsContents and Abstracts1The Birth-Planning Campaign: Local Experience of Population Control chapter abstract
Chapter 1 delves into the formulation and implementation of and the reactions to the birth-planning policy in Lijia Village, focusing on the birth-planning campaign from the 1970s to 2010, to present a local account of the practice and the experience of China's population control campaign. While unfolding the ways in which such a pervasive birth-planning policy was implemented and received on the local level for more than three decades, this chapter reveals that as the policy was adjusted and relaxed and the implementation measures modified, the reactions of the villagers toward the policy were drastically transformed. More strikingly, with an increasing number of peasant couples accepting the policy since the 1990s, a new reproductive pattern of couples willingly embracing a singleton daughter rather than taking advantage of the relaxed policy that allowed them to have a second child emerged.
2"Life Is to Enjoy": The Pursuit of the New Ideal of Happiness chapter abstract
Chapter 2 explores the impact of the pursuit of a new ideal of happiness on the childbearing preference of young parents. China's burgeoning market economy and the retreat of the state in governing the social life of villagers has facilitated the formation of a new ideal of happiness, defined by material consumption and the enjoyment of leisure. Young villagers believed that childrearing jeopardized the pursuit of their new life ideal, which discouraged them from making the decision to have a second child. In particular, many young women desired to have only one child to relieve themselves from the burden of childrearing. They were able to exercise their agency to carry out their reproductive choice for only one child when their desire did not coincide with the desires of their husbands.
3One Tiger versus Ten Mice: Raising One Successful Child chapter abstract
This chapter explores a new childrearing practice and its impact on childbearing preferences. Young couples had high expectations for their children's success in adult life and believed that raising one successful child was more rewarding than raising multiple unsuccessful children. The increasing cost of a child's daily consumption, driven by rising consumerism and children's agency in demanding consumption products, exacerbated the financial burden of childrearing. Moreover, raising a successful child also required parental support for a child's education, another major cost of childrearing. Consequently, an increasing number of young couples decided to concentrate limited family resources on only one child to secure the best possible upbringing for that child. This new childrearing belief and practice were not gender specific. Gender-neutral parental support and close parent-daughter ties further encouraged parents to stay with a singleton daughter and to support her in an unprecedented manner.
4"Little Quilted Vest to Warm Parents' Hearts": Gendered Transformation of Filial Piety chapter abstract
Chapter 4 examines the gendered transformation of filial piety and its impact on reproductive choice. It discusses the arrangements of elderly care and demonstrates that the practice of filial support provided by sons and daughters-in-law declined. Meanwhile, a married daughter started to maintain close ties with her parents and proved to be reliable for filial support. Such a transformation was the result of a reinterpreted intergenerational exchange, women's emerging practice to their parents, and the shift of postmarital residence patterns and women's socially constructed role as being more considerate than men. The decline of sons' filial support had weakened the desire for a son among young parents. They had started to make multiple preparations for their old age, including cultivating a close bond with a daughter.
5"Here Comes My Big Debt": Wedding Costs and Sons as Financial Burdens chapter abstract
Chapter 5 delves into the escalating burden of financing a son's wedding and its impact on reproductive choice. While marriage was significant for a man's having a lifelong companionship and establishing his status in his community, the patrilineal practice of a groom's family financing a wedding persisted. In the sex-ratio imbalanced marriage market, young women had gained leverage in negotiating marriage proposals, exacerbating the burden of wedding financing. Not only were parents expected to fulfill this critical parental obligation, they had to continue their support for their sons and daughters-in-law after their wedding to help maintain their sons' marriage. Consequently, a son had become a financial burden for his parents instead of a source of financial support in old age. This drastic shift of the role of sons further encouraged couples to willingly accept a singleton daughter.
6Emerging from the Ancestors' Shadow: Weakened Belief in Family Continuity chapter abstract
Chapter 6 explores the eroding effect that the belief in family continuity has had on the preference for sons. Without the presence of a lineage culture, there is no institutional support for the belief and practice of having a son to pass on the family line. Furthermore, skepticism concerning the belief in an afterlife and a reciprocal relationship between the ancestors and the living descendants had shaken the religious and cultural significance of having a son to perform ancestral rituals. Finally, while families without a son used to be stigmatized by their communities, such stigma had been removed as financial capability had become the most significant marker for social status. In the process of emerging from ancestors' shadows, young couples who had a singleton daughter no longer considered family continuity a necessity for their nuclear family and had willingly embraced a singleton daughter.
Conclusion chapter abstract
The conclusion discusses the implications of this emerging reproductive pattern of parents' embracing singleton daughters on the understandings of family transformations in rural China in general and son preference in particular. It also discusses the ways in which this reproductive choice sheds light on the studies on state-society relations in reproductive choice and control in China.
Introduction chapter abstract
The introduction first situates this research in the literature on state-society relations in reproductive choice and control in China, the reproductive preference for a son among Chinese families, and the media and scholarly attention on China's "missing girls." It then introduces the emergence of a new reproductive pattern of rural couples' embracing a singleton daughter in China's demographic landscape. It discusses the community (Lijia Village) in which the research was conducted, in particular, the location, history, demographic makeup, economic activities, and the practices of marriage and ancestral rituals of the residents. The chapter also discusses the development of the research project and the research methodology and concludes with an outline of the remaining chapters of this book.
