Conjugal Relationships in Chinese Culture: Sino-Western Discourses and Aesthetics on Marriage

Description

This book reviews the presentation of conjugal relationships in Chinese culture and their perception in the West. It explores the ways in which the act of marriage is represented/misrepresented in different literary genres, as well as in cultural adaptations. It looks at the gendered characteristics at play that affect conjugal relationships in Chinese societal practices more widely. It also distinguishes between the essential features that give rise to nuptial arrangements from the Chinese perspective, looking at what in which Sino and/or Western mentalities differ in terms of notions of autonomy in marriage. It excavates the extent to which marriage is constituted in forms of transaction between female and male bodies and asks under what circumstances wedding ceremonies constitute archetypal or counter-archetypal notions in pre-modern and modern society. Authors cover a range of fascinating cultural topics, such as posthumous marriage (necrogamy) as an ancient and popular folk culture from the perspective of Confucian ideology, as well as looking at marriage from ancient to present times, duty and rights in conjugal relations, inter-racial and inter-cultural marriage, widowhood in Confucian ideology, issues of legitimacy in marriage and concubinage, the taboos surrounding divorce and re-marriage, and conjugal violence. The book serves to revisit the cultural connections between marriage and various art forms, including literature, film, theatre, and other adaptations. It is a rich intellectual resource for scholars and students researching the historical roots, cultural interpretations, and evolving aspects of marriage as shown in literature, art, and culture. Foreword Introduction Contents Editors and Contributors Part I Revolutionary Alternatives of Conjugal Relationships in Chinese Culture 1 Divorce and Remarriage as Revealed in Cantonese Opera: The Phoenix Hairpin and The Return of Lady Wenji 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Widowhood, Abduction, and Remarriage in The Return of Lady Wenji 1.3 Divorce and Remarriage in The Phoenix Hairpin 1.4 Conclusion: Perceptions of Marriage in the Two Operas References 2 The “Absence” of Conjugal Relationships in the Myths of Miraculous Births in Ancient China: A Preliminary Survey 2.1 Introduction 2.2 A Remain of Ancient Matrilineality? A Brief Review of Twentieth-Century Scholars’ Argument About the Origin of the Concept of Gansheng 2.3 The Ancient Sage-Kings’ Unmarried Mothers in the Qianfu Lun: A Discussion on the Sages’ Fatherlessness in the Han Dynasty 2.4 A Dominant Heaven and the Increasingly Passive Mothers 2.5 Conclusion References 3 “Free Divorce?” Love, Marriage, and Divorce in Early Twentieth-Century Chinese Women’s Press 3.1 Introduction 3.2 “Free Divorce” 3.3 The Debate About Zheng Zhenxun’s Divorce 3.3.1 Zheng Zhenxun’s Divorce Case 3.3.2 Women’s Education and Marriage 3.3.3 The Morality of Divorce 3.3.4 Creating Conjugal Love 3.3.5 The Female Voice in the Trend of Divorce 3.4 Conclusion References 4 Free Love and Free Marriage: Chinese Writers’ Description and an American Missionary Woman’s Prescription in the 1920s 4.1 Introduction 4.2 The Two Longest-Running Women’s Magazines: The Ladies’ Journal and the Woman’s Messenger 4.2.1 The Ladies’ Journal 4.2.2 The Woman’s Messenger 4.3 Free Love and Free Marriage in the Ladies’ Journal Under Zhang’s Editorship 4.3.1 Sanctity of Romantic Love 4.3.2 Free Love: Essential to Women’s Liberation and Humanity 4.4 Laura M. White’s Victorian View of Love and Marriage 4.4.1 Victorian Womanhood 4.4.2 Love as Self-sacrifice and Freedom as Service 4.4.3 White’s View on Free Love and Free Marriage for Chinese Women 4.4.4 White’s Polemic with Chinese Writers: The Tragedy of Han Duanci 4.5 Conclusion References 5 Marriage in Migration and Homecoming: Joseph Conrad’s “Amy Foster” and Ha Jin’s “The Woman from New York” 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Conrad and Ha Jin as Migrant Authors 5.3 Yanko as an Agent of Exchange 5.4 Ha Jin’s Disillusioned Chinese Homecoming 5.5 Conclusion References Part II Reassessment of Contemporary Nuptial Discourse in Various Forms 6 Linguacultural Representation of the Cultural Self and Other in Chinese Women’s Discourse on Transnational Remarriage 6.1 Introduction 6.2 Method 6.3 Data Analysis 6.4 Results and Discussion 6.4.1 Terms of Address for the Chinese Wife and Her Foreign Husband 6.4.2 Creation of a Positive Self-image 6.4.3 Differentiation Between Past and Present Selves 6.4.4 Preservation and Reassertion of Cultural Identity 6.4.5 Chinese Proverbs and Popular Sayings 6.4.6 Positive and Negative Evaluations of Self and Other 6.5 Conclusion References 7 Visual Interpretations of Eastern and Western Wedding Invitation Designs 7.1 Introduction 7.2 the Nature of Eastern and Western Weddings 7.2.1 The Origin of Eastern Weddings 7.2.2 The Origin of Western Weddings 7.3 The Nature of Wedding Invitations 7.3.1 Traditional Wedding Customs 7.3.2 Social Status 7.3.3 Individual Beliefs Such as Religious and Family Ideology 7.4 Socio-cultural Positive Emotional Changes 7.4.1 Information Received from Wedding Invitations 7.4.2 Information Understanding from Wedding Invitations’ Visual Attributes 7.4.3 Emotional Changes Through Visual Attributions on Wedding Invitations 7.5 The Reflected Emotion of the Visual Attributes 7.5.1 Format 7.5.2 Typographic Elements 7.5.3 Colours 7.5.4 Symbols 7.6 Research Design 7.7 Discussion 7.7.1 A Modern Combination of Eastern and Western Invitation Card Designs 7.7.2 Personality and Creative Expression of Wedding Invitations 7.7.3 Positive Emotional Changes Presented in Both Eastern and Western Wedding Invitation Card Designs 7.8 Conclusion References 8 Marriage, Divorce, and Cohabitation: A Reading of Norwegian Fortune-Teller I Ching by Henning Hai Lee Yang 8.1 Introduction 8.2 From Wilhelm’s Book of Wisdom to Yang’s Book of Divination 8.3 Yang’s Socio-Political Horizon: Norwegian Marriage and Cohabitation 8.4 Yang’s Hexagram Line of Love and Its Advocacy for Marriage 8.5 Yang’s Hexagram 31 Xian (咸) as a Continuation of a ‘Norwegian Marriage Interpretation’ of the Changes 8.6 Yang’s “Marriage Hexagram” in Comparison with the Famous Wilhelm-Baynes Translation 8.7 Conclusion References 9 Happily Ever After? Rethinking Marriage in Contemporary Hong Kong 9.1 Introduction 9.2 Wedlock as a Padlock? 9.3 Marriage on a Piece of Paper 9.4 Marriage, Freedom and Individuality 9.5 Conclusion References