Wedding Marriage to the Nation-State in Modern China
Wedding Marriage to the Nation-State in Modern China
Legal Consequences for Divorce, Property, and Women’s Rights
This chapter examines China’s marriage laws of the past century to analyze changing visions of the nation embedded in marital legislation and to identify specific turning points in real or imagined marriage crises. Focusing on the creation and revision of marriage laws under both the Nationalist and Communist regimes, this chapter interrogates legal and political efforts to define an ideal model of marriage and family and to contain the effects of marital breakdown. The chapter looks beyond law on the books as it evaluates the implementation of marital regulations in rural China today and its impact on women’s rights inside and outside the family. In so doing, it underscores emerging gaps between the principles enshrined in black-letter law and legal practice regarding marriage and divorce. Ultimately, the chapter argues that recent marital reforms have failed to protect women’s welfare or to resolve persistent gender inequalities in Chinese society.
Keywords: marriage, law, nation, divorce, women’s rights, China
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