Young Women's Fertility Intentions and the Emerging Bilateral Family System under China's Two-Child Family Planning Policy (original) (raw)
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The best would be to have a boy and a girl, because I think a child growing up alone is too lonely. You need a companion.... An older brother and a younger sister would be best.... This is because an older brother would care for the sister from young age. He would feel very responsible. Like a real man. And the sister could rely on her older brother, and grow up like a little princess. Yamei, singleton woman
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Caught in the context of a highly competitive development process, within the framework of a policy which limited their reproductive capacity to a single child, PRC urban families have, in recent decades, attached growing importance to their child's education, aiming to lead them to professional and personal success. This, however, also had an impact on the capacities of many young adults to marry early. In this context, the phenomenon of “marriage corners” mushroomed in large cities all over China beginning in the mid-2000s. Within China, this new practice generated criticism. These markets are seen as displaying conservative forms of marriage arrangement, the disregarding of romantic love, and forms of intergenerational power organization that may be considered backwards. However, by the criticisms it generates but as well the forms of relationships that it displays, the phenomenon can allow for a better understanding of the transformation of inter-generational relationships a...