The Transformation of Private Life: Love, Family, and Intimate Relationships in a Chinese Village: 1949~1999

Author: Yan Yunxiang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-01-01
Features: This book has just won the "Levin Book Award" from the Association for Asian Studies in 2005. The author's other monograph, The Flow of Gifts: Reciprocity and Social Networks in a Chinese Village, published in 2000, received positive responses from academia. This book can be seen as a continuation of the fieldwork in the previous book. Using Xiaojia Village in Northeast China as the research subject, it examines the changes in the local moral world of Xiaojia Village, the transformation of the matchmaking process for rural youth, the various details of this shift, the evolution of three interrelated customs in the division of family property, and the significant changes reflected in the practice of betrothal gifts. It discusses the emergence and development of individuals as independent entities and the crucial role the state plays in the transformation of private life and the formation of individual subjectivity. The conclusion is that over the past half-century, farmers' private lives have undergone a dual transformation, with the rise of the individual as an independent subject being at the core of this shift.