Search results
Apr 3, 2000 · In 1950, China's new Communist government enacted a Marriage Law to allow free choice in marriage and easier access to divorce. Prohibiting arranged marriages, concubinage, and bigamy, it was one of the most dramatic efforts ever by a state to change marital and family relationships.
Previous research on the Marriage Law and state-family relations in the PRC have rendered unequivocal judgements concerning the state's intentions and modus operandi with regard to the enforcement of the Marriage Law, and the law's impact on society over time. For the sake of simplicity, this is here called the "conservative betrayal" thesis.
May 5, 2021 · One of its strategic priorities was to establish a new socialist order by reconstructing China’s marriage and family system. This gave birth to the 1950 Marriage Law, which abolished polygamy, along with arranged marriages, mercenary marriages and child betrothals.
- Pan Wang
- Pan.wang@unsw.edu.au
- 2021
Feb 8, 2024 · To further enforce the 1950 Marriage Law, China launched a national Implementation of the Marriage Law Campaign in March 1953 (Xia 2020a). It was promoted through newspapers, brochures, lectures, and so on, and basically achieved the goal of changing customs (Zhang and Mo 2008).
Scholars have agreed on the incomplete implementation of the 1950 Marriage Law, especially its provisions against arranged marriage and for freedom of choice of marital partner, and provided social, structural, and political accounts explaining obstacles to free choice marriage.
The translation of “Decree regarding Marriage” is drawn from Stuart R. Schram, The Political Thought of Mao Tse-tung, 337; the text of the 1950 Marriage Law is reprinted from Kay Anne Johnson, Women, the Family and Peasant Revolution in China, 235–39. Decree Regarding Marriage (1931)
People also ask
Why did China enact a marriage law in 1950?
How has Chinese marriage and family law changed over the past 70 years?
Why is the 1950 Marriage Law important?
How did Chinese marriage change in the 20th century?
How conservative is Chinese marriage and family law?
How does Chinese culture influence marriage & family law?
The story of Chinese marriage practices in the twentieth century has often been told as a transformation from family-based oppression to limited individual choice—or in another register, from feudalism to socialism—with the PRC’s 1950 Marriage Law marking an important, if ultimately incomplete, moment of progress.
