Abstract
Single men of China are often portrayed as passive victims of a tight marriage market and referred to as ‘forced bachelors’. This study examines how men and their natal families adjust to the difficulty men experience in finding women to marry. Based on 107 in-depth interviews conducted with men and women of various marital statuses and generations in Shannxi and Jiangsu provinces of China in 2012, this study suggests that agency among single men is exhibited in diverse ways. Our analysis underscores that single men are not passive victims, but, rather, they make choices and seek alternatives in a severely constrained demographic and social environment. Moreover, a comparison of men’s marital strategies in the two fieldwork sites indicates how local marriage markets must be examined in relationship to local marital norms, gendered migration flows and rural-urban regional economic disparities.
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Notes
- 1.
Fieldwork was carried out in the same locations as for the study presented in Chap. 3. Both studies were part of the same research project.
- 2.
The average age at marriage for men in Baijia and Lijia is 22–25 according to liaisons who have been working in the local governments. This is lower than 26.7, the average age at marriage for men for China as a whole (National Bureau of Statistics of China 2012).
- 3.
The interviews were conducted by the first author of this chapter, as well as a researcher and a doctoral student from IPDS (Population and Development Studies of Xi’an Jiaotong University).
- 4.
The revolutionary Reform and Open Policy was initiated in 1979, aiming at transiting China’s economy from a command economy to a socialist market economy system. The economic reforms were a huge success that fundamentally reconstructed China’s economy and achieved rapid nationwide development in the following three decades. The expansion of private economy has also transformed individual lifestyles, marriage ideologies, gender relations etc. See Guthrie (2012) for discussion on the impact of 1979 reform on Chinese society.
- 5.
For some female deficit communities, local government may encourage uxorilocality as a solution to men’s marriage difficulties, which may positively change how people perceive uxorilocal marriage as a stigmatized or unfilial practice (See Li et al. 2006). However, this is not the case for Baijia or Lijia.
- 6.
An economically advanced area that represents one of the leading economic interregional bodies in China, including fast-developing cities such as Shanghai, Nanjing and Wuxi.
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Acknowledgement
This study is part of a larger research study funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. We thank Dr. Shuzhuo Li and Dr. Yan Li at the Institute for Population and Development Studies at Xi’an Jiaotong University, for their coordination and assistance with recruitment of respondents during fieldwork. Special thanks to interview participants whose trust and frankness contributed most to this study. We also thank the anonymous reviewers and the Series editors for their feedback.
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Zhang, K., Bélanger, D. (2018). ‘Who Said I Was a Forced Bachelor?’ Single Men’s Voices and Strategies in Rural China. In: Srinivasan, S., Li, S. (eds) Scarce Women and Surplus Men in China and India. Demographic Transformation and Socio-Economic Development, vol 8. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63275-9_4
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