Description
Book Synopsis Grounded in multi-generational stories from Kinmen in Taiwan, Visions of Marriage explores the historical entanglements between the pursuit of new personal and national futures. Focusing on the relational and future-making aspects of marriage, the ethnography highlights the intersection of transformations across familial generations and shifting political economies in Taiwan, and more globally. While theories of modernity often treat marriage as an index of social change, without adequate attention to its transformative capacities generated through personal and familial agency, this volume provides comparative insights on family change and demographic shifts in Asia.
Trade Review “The book is a fascinating study of changes in the institution of marriage over time in Kinmen. It demonstrates how marriage can be studied as both driving social changes and impacted by social changes.” • Lynne Yukie Nakano, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
“It is a significant contribution to the study of kinship, family, and social change in Taiwan and will be read with great interest not only by Taiwan / China scholars but also by anthropologists and scholars in a wide range of disciplines in the humanities and the social sciences.” • Gonçalo D. Santos, University of Coimbra
Table of Contents List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Chapter 1. The Migrant Economy and Marriage in the Republican Era
Chapter 2. Militarization and Marriage in the Cold War Context
Chapter 3. Changing Intergenerational Transmission amidst Political and Economic Liberalization
Chapter 4. Trials of Marrying
Chapter 5. Cross-Border Marriage on the Borderland
Chapter 6. The Work of Marriage: An In-Married Woman’s Perspective
Conclusion
References
Index
