Arthur P. Wolf

Marriage and adoption in China, 1845-1945

They also discuss the social consequences of these variant marriage forms including the effects on fertility divorce and adultery. (ANNOTATION)

The Pree inent Role of Government Intervention in China's Family Revolution

This article argues that changes in family patterns in China are largely a result of direct government intervention rather than an inevitable byproduct of industrialization urbanization and other forms of modern social change. The author bases his argument on temporal trends and regional variations in fertility and marriage. The data indicate a close correlation between abrupt shifts in the fertility rate and reversals in official population policy. For example there was a sharp decline in fertility in 1962-67 when the Government implemented the 1st of its population control policies a sharp rise in 1968 when such efforts were undercut by the chaos of the initial year of the Cultural Revolution and a dramatic decline when the birth control program was reimplemented in 1970. A similar pattern can be observed for 1st marriage rates. Urban and rural fertility and marriage rates have varied in unison a pattern that would not be found if modernization were the driving force behind demographic trends. Further support for the authors hypothesis was provided by 2481 fertility histories given by 580 women in 7 communities (Peking Fukien Chekiang Kiangsu Shantung Shensi and Szechwan) covering the 1940-79 period. Low fertility rates were noted in field sites where the commune leadership was particularly committed to implementing birth control even under conditions of extreme economic underdevelopment. The success of the Chinese birth control program seems attributable to 2 factors: 1) the great prestige of the central government and 2) penetration of village society by the national bureaucracy. Moreover it seems likely that this successful experience can only be replicated in other countries by replicating Chinas social structure.

Fertility in prerevolutionary rural China.

This paper challenges the conclusion reached in a recent reanalysis by Barclay et al. (Population Index 1976) of John Lossing Bucks 1929-31 survey of farm families in seven provinces of China that fertility in prerevolutionary rural China was at a moderate level compared with the fertility of other noncontracepting agrarian societies. It is argued here that the Buck survey sample was not representative of China that the means by which the data were collected prompt doubts about their accuracy and that the discarding of data for some localities biased the estimates. Higher fertility estimates derived from Taiwanese household registers of the period retrospective fertility histories of elderly Chinese women collected by the author and the findings of a 1930s study of vital events in central Kiangsu all suggest that fertility in premodern rural China if not unusually high was higher than the recent reassessment suggested. (authors)

Marriage in Taiwan, 1881–1905 An Example of Regional Diversity

Sinologists have long agreed that many aspects of Chinese culture vary widely from region to region and even from valley to valley and town to town. The question for contemporary scholars is why and with what consequences. The problem we face is that while evidence from widely scattered communities is adequate to demonstrate the fact of regional diversity, it is not adequate to test hypotheses concerning its causes and consequences. What we need are detailed maps of the distribution and frequency of such practices as male adoption, uxorilocal marriage, cash bride-price, double burial, and foot binding. The only chance we have of discovering why Chinese culture varies is to see how that variation relates to the location of such likely causes as relations with non-Han peoples, the strength of state control, and the balance of forces in local modes of production.

Maternal Sentiments: How Strong Are They?

It has long been assumed, by scientists and laymen alike, that mothers naturally bond with their children and find it painful to part with them if forced to do so. This assumption is challenged here with evidence showing that in Taiwan women willingly gave away the great majority of their daughters as infants or small children. They did so as part of a strategy for securing their own future, but they were not compelled to so by poverty or by their mothersinlaw. Under certain conditions the probability that a daughter would be given away exceeded .9.

Marriage in Taipei city: reasons for rethinking Chinese demography.

The only pre-1950 Chinese cities for which reliable demographic records exist are those in Taiwan. Analysis of two samples of the records from Taipei City produces surprising results. Urban women were far less likely to marry than rural women and consequently had markedly lower fertility. This was due to a greater demand for female labor in the city but not because employment outside of the home freed women to refuse marriages arranged by their parents. Parental authority was as strong in the city as in the country. The difference was that given the possibility of remunerative employment for their daughters many parents chose to keep them at home rather than giving them to another family in marriage. (authors)

Fertility and Women's Labour: Two Negative (but Instructive) Findings

This chapter presents findings on the influence of cultural practices such as foot-binding and marriage patterns on fertility decline. Data are examined on fertility marriage patterns and work force activity among Hakka and Hokkien women living in several villages on opposite sides of a railway in Northern Taiwan during 1905-45 and 1946-85. Fertility is only affected by work when women control what they earn and what they produce. Even though Hakka women did not bind their feet at the turn of the century and thereafter and worked along side of men in the paddy fields fertility did not differ from Hokkien women who had bound feet and worked only inside the home. Work outside the home and higher educational levels were unrelated to lower fertility. Studies by Hill Gates show that a wifes contribution of capital to the family in the form of dowry or other resources is associated with lower fertility.

Family and population in East Asian history

With the exception of contributions by Arthur P. Wolf and Ansley J. Coale the 13 papers included here were prepared for a conference held at Wadham College Oxford August 20-25 1978. The papers which are by various authors are concerned with the historical demography of Eastern Asia specifically China and Japan. The main conclusion to be drawn from the papers is the fundamental difference between the historical demographic situation in China and Japan highlighted by the prevalence of the grand or extended family in China and of the stem or nuclear family in Japan. Differences in fertility between the two countries are also considered.