Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2017. xi, 189 pp. (Tables, B&W photos, maps.) US$27.95, paper. ISBN 978-1-5036-0293-9.
Choosing Daughters is an interesting and innovative book that examines the transformations of patrilineal and patriarchal traditions in rural China through the lens of reproductive preferences and child-bearing decisions. Drawing on rich ethnographic data collected in the village of Lijia in northeastern China, Lihong Shi documents how rural young couples voluntarily choose to have a singleton daughter, how they negotiate the decision to not have a second child with their family, and how their reproductive preferences and decisions reflect the changing family dynamics, conjugal and intergenerational relations, and perceptions of quality of life, intimacy, and filial piety in post-reform rural China. This book enriches our understanding of rural Chinese families in general and their new reproductive patterns in the post-reform period in particular.
The preference for sons has a long history in China. In traditional Chinese societies, having sons is vital for rural families, as sons not only make economic contributions to their families through their agricultural production, but also shoulder the filial responsibility of taking care of their aged parents and continuing the patrilineal ancestral line. However, this long-standing tradition in China has been challenged in the post-reform period through rural people’s grass-roots choice to have a singleton daughter. Although this sounds surprising, this reproductive decision is decoded by Shi in her book as a pragmatic response to economic, social, and cultural transformations in post-reform rural China. Although China’s birth-planning policy sets structural constraints on rural people’s reproduction, Shi discovers that the decision by young rural couples to have a singleton daughter and not have a second child is largely voluntary.
In the context of China’s economic development and marketization, Shi argues that rural young couples with increased family income aspire to a new life ideal that emphasizes quality of life and individual happiness via consumption and leisure. Having a second child is thought to jeopardize parents’ participation, especially mothers’ participation, in the labour force, which indirectly reduces family income and hinders their pursuit of the new life ideal. Furthermore, the emphasis on quality of life and competitive consumption among peers has increased the cost of child rearing in rural China. As a result, rural young couples prefer to have a small family with only one child to guarantee their own quality of life and their capacity to satisfy their child’s various needs and to raise a successful child.
More importantly, Shi points out that the changed reproduction preference is associated with the transformed marriage market and the gendered practices of filial piety in rural China. The skewed sex ratio at birth in China over the past decades has resulted in men outnumbering women, which gives women the upper hand in the marriage market. This in turn has caused an increase in bride wealth in rural China. As it is parents’ responsibility to build a house for a son when he gets married and to finance his wedding, the rising cost of bride wealth and weddings lies on the shoulders of rural parents with sons. Nowadays, having multiple sons is a huge financial burden for parents. Rural parents are also becoming more uneasy as they observe that married sons may not be able to fulfill their filial duties and reciprocate parental support as their parents age. In contrast, married daughters are becoming more filial, and are providing physical care, emotional support, and even financial support for their elderly parents. This shift has occurred because although married sons have traditionally shouldered the filial responsibility of taking care of their aged parents, it is their wives who provide the practical care in their daily lives (Susanne Yuk-ping Choi and Yinni Peng, Masculine Compromise: Migration, Family, and Gender in China, Oakland: University of California Press, 2016). For married women in Lijia village, their upper hand in the marriage market enables them to have a say in married life. With increased economic resources and a harmonious relationship with their parents, married women are willing and able to devote their resources and energy to taking care of their own parents rather than their parents-in-law. Therefore, Shi observes that the gendered practice of filial piety in Lijia village has changed from a woman helping her husband to fulfill his filial responsibility to a husband “helping his wife to practice filial piety to her parents” (103). As raising sons has become costly and unrewarding, rural parents in Lijia village find that having a singleton daughter is a satisfactory choice.
The detailed descriptions of family dynamics and multiple family relations in this book reveal how the patrilineal and patriarchal system is negotiated and contested in everyday life and how women exert their agency in the marriage market and family life to influence families’ reproduction preferences and pattern. Although the empirical findings are innovative, and the detailed and vivid descriptions of rural people’s lives make the book readable, the book has two shortcomings that deserve attention. First, it is highly descriptive and lacks deeper theoretical discussion and reflection. It fails to indicate the theoretical implications of this case study and how it contributes to general academic discussions on gender, family, and reproduction. Second, the findings are based on ethnographic work in a village in northeastern China. One cannot help but wonder if similar phenomena exist in south China, where the patriarchal lineage culture is stronger. Geographic disparity in economic development and socio-cultural variances across regions in China may also create differentiated conditions for people negotiating their reproductive preferences and cause diversified responses. There is a need for more comparative studies in the future.
Yinni Peng
Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong, China