Brides, bachelors and brokers: the marriage market in rural Anhui in an era of economic reform
Han Min; Eades, J.S.
Modern Asian Studies 29(4): 841-869
1995
ISSN/ISBN: 0026-749X DOI: 10.1017/s0026749x00016206Document Number: 245311
The paper deals with the impact of economic reforms and rising rural incomes on the arrangements of marriages in Xiao County, in the Huaibei Plain of northern Anhui, China. It focuses on changes in the payments involved in betrothal and marriage during three periods: the pre-revolution period up to 1949, the period of collectivization, from 1949-80, and the period of decollectivization from 1980 onwards, after the introduction of the 'responsibility system' of production and the breakup of the communes. In rural northern Anhui, it is argued, this has led a major shift in the relative bargaining power of wifegivers and wifetakers in marriage negotiations, which the paper attempts to account for. The rise in rural incomes and the increased value of women's labour which have resulted from the responsibility system have meant an escalation in the costs of marriage payments, particularly those made by the family of the husband. There has also been a fall in the age of marriage, so that people now marry in their early twenties or earlier, compared with their late twenties, or even early thirties in the case of men during the commune period. The increasing economic importance of affinal relationships has increased the incentive to find marriage partners locally, and as men get older they face increasing difficulties in doing so. The final part of the paper discusses these problems and the strategies to which older unmarried men resort in the new economic climate.