Marriage, Law and Gender in Revolutionary China, 1940-1960

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Xiaoping Cong examines the social and cultural significance of Chinese revolutionary legal practice in the construction of marriage and gender relations. Her book is an empirically rich investigation of the ways in which a 1943 legal dispute over an arranged marriage in a Chinese village became a legal, political and cultural exemplar on the national stage. This conceptually groundbreaking study revisits the Chinese Revolution and its impact on women and society by presenting a Chinese experience that cannot and should not be theorized in the framework of Western discourse. Taking a cultural-historical perspective, Cong shows how the Chinese Revolution and its legal practices produced new discourses, neologisms and cultural symbols that contained China's experience in twentieth-century social movements, and how revolutionary practice was sublimated into the concept of 'self-determination', an idea that bridged local experiences with the tendency of the twentieth-century world, and that is a revolutionary legacy for China today. Cover Half-title Series information Title page Copyright information Dedication Table of contents List of figures List of maps List of tables Acknowledgments Introduction Part I Locality, marriage practice, and women 1 The case of Feng v. Zhang I. From the imperial frontier to the revolutionary base: state-building in Longdong and Shaanbei in the 1930s Geography, history, and population of the Longdong subregion Political history, society, and culture of the locality II. Marriage reform and local society The 1939 regulation and marriage reform Social structure of the locality and the family revolution III. Social conflicts: the economic motive behind marriage disputes IV. Law and social practice: dealing with cultural and legal incompatibility 2 The appeal I. The revolutionary discourse of “freedom of marriage” II. Women in the local patriarchal system: love, sexuality, and marriage Women’s living conditions in the region: a society in distress Women’s life under patriarchy: love, sexuality, and marriage Resistance to the patriarchy: women running away and “being kidnapped” III. Local women and the revolutionary state The revolutionary state: mobilization of women for sacrifice Soldiers’ wives and fiancées: women who did not want to wait “Freedom of marriage” in practice: fortification of the family agent IV. The case of Zuo Run v. Wang Yinsuo Conclusion Part II Legal practice and new principle 3 The new adjudication I. Constructing a new workable judicial system for the SGNBR: 1937–46 The judicial system of the SGN in transition: 1937–41 Formalizing the revolutionary judicial system: 1941–3 II. Searching for a hybridized model for the revolutionary judicial system The review of judicial works in 1943: an independent or a centralized system? Inventing the “revolutionary tradition”: a hybrid judicial system in the making, 1943–9 III. Legal practice: formalism or local flexibility under the revolutionary principle? Modernity and locality: between legal formalism and reality Legal practice in a locality: understanding local knowledge Between revolutionary principles and social circumstances: the case of Zhao Fanshen 4 A new principle in the making I. From “freedom” to “self-determination”: terminology and statutes The dual meanings of the term “freedom” in twentieth-century China “Freedom as principle”: the marriage regulations and law in southern revolutionary base areas, 1931–4 From “freedom” to “self-determination” through social practice II. “Self-determination”: a new principle for marriage through legal practice Reconceptualizing and understanding rural women Changing legal practices (1): definitions and techniques Changing legal practices (2): detecting motives for divorce Changing legal practices (3): conditions of family abuse and “intolerable cohabitation” III. The marriage regulations in revision, 1944 and 1946 The 1944 regulation: a provisional change Implementation of the 1944 regulation and its deficiency The 1946 regulation: making law practicable Conclusion Part III Politics and gender in construction 5 Newspaper reports I. Ma Xiwu’s way of judging: pacifying the local community The Yan’an Way or Ma’s Way: an authoritarian state or New Democracy? Ma’s Way: responding to an agitated village community II. Ma Xiwu’s Way: improving state relations with local communities Ma’s Way in local context: achieving a peaceful community via mediation Ma’s Way in practice: pushing the party-state to improve its working style Ma’s Way in practice: the state negotiating with and reshaping the local community III. Ma’s Way: local communities in the shaping of state discourse Reestablishing the order of the community Local autonomy and culture under the revolutionary state IV. Xinhua Daily: showcasing SGN democracy and a prelude to a new heroine 6 The Qin opera and the ballad I. The post-May Fourth generation of urban-bred youth in Yan’an: searching for their national roots and devotion... Established intellectuals versus educated youth in Yan’an Yuan Jing’s literary career and the national form: from Liu Qiao’er to The Story of New Heroic Sons and Daughters II. New images of women under the revolutionary party-state New images of women: the rebellious daughter The new image of middle-aged women: a social mother III. A revolution that transformed the mother–daughter relationship The May Fourth daughters: leaving their mothers behind Social mother versus biological mother (1): rural mothers as others The social mother versus the biological mother (2): sexuality, reproduction, and class Feminine space in the masculine party-state: recasting the relationship between state and family IV. Remaking the story for the locals: Han Qixiang and the ballad “Liu Qiao’s Reunion” Han Qixiang and the transition of local culture “Liu Qiao’s Reunion”: moving toward local taste 7 The Ping opera and film I. The changed term in the 1950 Marriage Law: departing from locality Tracing the contestation: returning to urban idealism Regularizing marriage reform II. The Ping opera Liu Qiao’er: the image of new women Adapting Liu Qiao’er to Ping opera, 1949–55 A new heroine in reality: Xin Fengxia’s marriage III. From Ping opera to a film: politicizing popular culture A campaign for reforming the performing arts Transforming popular culture: intellectuals under the new revolutionary ideology Politicizing popular culture IV. Feng Zhiqin and “Liu Qiao’er”: the new models of women From Feng Peng’er to Feng Zhiqin: rural women in the public domain “Liu Qiao’er” as a model for rural women Epilogue I. The ongoing story of Liu Qiao’er: Feng Zhiqin, Yuan Jing, and Xin Fengxia II. The law and marriage: progress and practice beyond 1960 III. Zizhi discourse: from marriage to state and society Bibliography I. Archival documents II. Historical documents, films, and scholarly works Index