Involuntary Bachelorhood and the Crises of the Son-centred Intergenerational Contract – Insights from Gender-imbalanced Rural China
Adopting an institutional approach, this study looks at how the intergenerational contract in rural China shapes involuntary bachelorhood in high sex ratio contexts, a perspective that has received limited attention in previous research. Based on semi-structured interviews with rural women and men in Shaanxi province, we draw attention to the significance of the son-centred intergenerational contract, and find that failing to fulfil it, involuntary bachelors are seen as exposing ‘filial incapacity’. Such filial incapacity stems not only from being unable to uphold the patrilineal-patrilocal complex, but also from failing to reproduce feminised care, and is associated with dishonour. Strategies to mitigate filial incapacity are muted by patrilocal marriage customs and female hypergamic norms, and the narrative that bride prices are mandatory and unattainable. Although uxorilocal marriages can be a way to escape involuntary bachelorhood, the son-centred intergenerational contract stands in the way for such arrangements, especially for brotherless men. As such, we conclude that involuntary bachelorhood is not only posing a crisis to the intergenerational contract, but the son-centred intergenerational contract is productive of a set of crises for single men, including the very category of ‘bare branch’ itself.
Date:
10 March 2025, 12:00
Venue:
Dickson Poon Building, Canterbury Road OX2 6LU
Venue Details:
Kin-ku Cheng Lecture Theatre (lower ground floor)
Speaker:
Professor Lisa Eklund (Lund Universty)
Organising department:
Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
Organisers:
Dr Bo-jiun Jing (University of Oxford),
Dr Evelyn Chan (University of Oxford),
Professor Margaret Hillenbrand (University of Oxford),
Professor Denise van der Kamp (University of Oxford),
Professor Henrietta Harrison (University of Oxford),
Dr Chigusa Yamaura (University of Oxford)
Organiser contact email address:
information@chinese.ox.ac.uk
Host:
Professor Rachel Murphy (University of Oxford)
Part of:
China Studies Seminar series
Booking required?:
Not required
Cost:
Free
Audience:
Public
Editor:
Clare Orchard
