Young Men’s Pursuit of Marriage
The chapter looks at romance and marriage in China, from the popular portrayal in the reality dating show Feicheng Wurao, to the crucial social pressure for men and women to marry. The subjects of the two ethnographic cases are migrant workers who, although they have broken away from the humble rural backgrounds that would disadvantage them in the marriage market, nevertheless still face challenges finding wives. The chapter explicates an intrinsic tension in the hegemonic ideology of able-responsible man between the traditional values of patriarchy and the requirement that modern men are caring, romantic, and egalitarian. Tensions between money and love, male chauvinism and women’s equality, class differences, and the need for a man to be a good husband, father, and son-in-law, are all shown to affect men’s performance in romantic relationships and marriage.