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.

Troubling Boys Becoming Men

The chapter describes, with two ethnographic cases, how hegemonic masculinity exerts influence during teenage boys’ formative years and their responses. There is a focus on failure or inadequacy, rather than the usual accounts of hard work and academic success in related Chinese literature. The boys' perceived docile and unmanly characters concern their parents, but the boys choose to exercise their agency to develop alternative masculinities, including interpreting androgyny and effeminacy as desirable male models, rather than conforming to the hegemonic ideal. The one-child policy and volatility created by the countrywide rural-to-urban labour migration are identified as affecting the lives of boys in 21st century China and leading, amongst other things, to large numbers of left behind children and only sons.