Embracing a singleton-daughter: An emerging transition of reproductive choice in rural Northeast China.

摘要

This dissertation explores an emerging transition of reproductive choice in rural Northeast China where a significant number of peasant couples have chosen to have a singleton-daughter (one child, a daughter) rather than take advantage of the modified birth-planning policy that allows them to have a second child if their first birth has produced a girl. This dissertation reveals that, notwithstanding the persistence of patriarchal biases in reproductive choices, since the late 1980s a significant number of peasant couples have willingly embraced a singleton-daughter. Further exploration suggests that this transition of reproductive choice is a result of the transformations of the traditional big family ideal and preference for sons in the Han Chinese society. Firstly, the majority of peasant couples have pursued a new ideal of happiness defined by material consumption and leisure enjoyment, which contradicts the big family ideal. They have also preferred fewer children, in most cases, only one child, in order to concentrate limited family resources on only one child to secure the best upbringing of the child. Secondly, the transformation of the belief and the practice of filial piety which has now designated daughters as more filial and reliable for old-age support, and a weakened dedication to the ancestors and a decline of the belief to have a son to continue the patrilineage, have significantly challenged the long-standing tradition of son preference. Finally, women's empowerment in marriage and family relations due to a sex-ratio imbalance has undermined the necessity for a woman to have a son to secure her status in her husband's family. This dissertation suggests that studies on the reactions of the Chinese population toward China's birth-planning policy need to be shifted from a focus on strong resistance to an inclusion of varying degrees of reactions, including general acceptance of the policy in some rural regions. Meanwhile, studies on the childbearing practice of peasants in China need to include the changing value of sons and daughters and its implications on reproductive choices.