Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-qsmjn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T07:24:40.817Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Age at Marriage in the People's Republic of China*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2009

H. Yuan Tien
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

China's Marriage Law of 1980 went into effect on New Year's Day 1981, permitting women and men to marry at 20 and 22, respectively. This contrasts sharply with the late marriage requirements of the 1970s, whichstipulated 23 and 25 years for women and men in the rural areas and 25 and 28 years for their urban sisters and brothers. The new legal minimum ages for marriage caused an instant upsurge in the numbers of young people getting married in China. One scholar estimated that as many as 30 million marriages would take place in 1981 as millions of young women and men took advantage of the new legal minimum. It was later officially projected that first marriages in 1981 would probably reach at least 14 million, more than twice the number in 1980. And, because of the “baby boom” of the 1960s marriage rates are likely to remain high through the mid 1990s.

Type
Research Article
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 93 , March 1983 , pp. 90 - 107
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 1983

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Du, Cheng, “Some problems of China's population and their solutions”, Wuhan Daxue xuebao (Journal of Wuhan University), Philosophy and Social Sciences Series, No. 3 (1981), pp. 3–9Google Scholar .

2. Liaowang (Outlook), 20 November 1981.

3. Tien, H. Yuan, “One boom is enough: the demographic education of China's policymakers”, Intercom, Vol. 10, No. 2 (1982), pp. 10–12Google Scholar .

4. Xinyuan, Sun, “Seasonality of births in China and error reduction in population statistics”, Nanjing Daxue xuebao (Journal of Nanjing University), Philosophy and Social Sciences Series, No. 1 (1981), p. 63Google Scholar .

5. Ruo, Li and Ping, Hang. “Fertility of three generations in Jiangsu province: an investigation”, Nanjing Daxue xuebao (Journal of Nanjing University), No. 1 (1981),p. 38Google Scholar .

6. Xinyuan, Sun, “Seasonality of births in China and error reduction in population statistics”, p. 63Google Scholar .

7. Ibid..

8. United States State Statistical Bureau, Communiqué on the results of implementing the 1981 National economic plan, Xinhua, Beijing, 29 April 1982.

9. Muhua, Chen, “To realize the Four Modernizations it is necessary to control population growth in a planned way”, People's Daily, 11 08 1979Google Scholar . For a translation, see Chen, P. C., “Birth Planning in China” International Family Planning Perspectives, Vol. 5, No. 3 (1979), pp. 93–101Google Scholar .

10. Yu, Y. C., “The prospects of Chinese population growth, 1978–2038”, Renkou yanjiu(Population Research), No. 3 (1980), pp. 18–35Google Scholar .

11. Shangzhi, Li and Mou, Xu, “For the sake of China's future prosperity: an interview with comrade Chen Muhua on the population question”, Liaowang, No. 1 (1982), p. 14Google Scholar .

12. People's Daily, 14,15,17,19 and 24 March 1957.

13. Ta, Chen, “Deferred marriage, birth control and population problems of China”, Xinjianshe (New Construction), No. 5 (1957), p. 16Google Scholar .

14. Tien, H. Yuan, China's Population Struggle: Demographic Decisions of the People's Republic, 1949–1969 (Columbus, Ohio: Ohio State University Press, 1973), pp. 280–81Google Scholar .

15. Tien, H. Y., “Fertility decline via marital postponement”, Modern China, Vol. 1, No. 4 (1975), pp. 447–62CrossRefGoogle Scholar .

16. Chen, Pi-chao, Rural Health and Birth Planning in China (Research Triangle Park, North Carolina: International Fertility Research Program, 1981), p. 7Google Scholar , Table 6.

17. Parish, William L. and Whyte, Martin King, Village and Family in Contemporary China (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978), pp. 162–64Google Scholar .

18. Chiao, Chiming, “Marital condition” in his A Study of the Chinese Population, Milbank Fund Quarterly Bulletin, Vol. 12, No. 2 (1934), pp. 171–73CrossRefGoogle Scholar .

19. Barclay, George W., Coale, Ansley J., Stoto, Michael A. and Trussell, T. James, “A reassessment of the demography of traditional rural China”, Population Index, Vol. 42, No. 4 (1976), pp, 609–10CrossRefGoogle Scholar .

20. Chen Ta, “Deferred marriage, birth control and population problems of China”.

21. Lizhong, Zhang, “Fertility limitation, late marriage, and decrease in the rate of population increase”, Renkou yu jingji (Population and Economics) No. 1 (1980), p. 38Google Scholar .

22. Anan, Shen, “Shanghai's population: structure and analysis”, Shehui kexue (Social Sciences), No. 6 (1980), p. 36Google Scholar .

23. Suzhen, Xue, Yuzhu, Wang, Lijuan, Wang, An, Yanand Zhiqin, Yu, “Report of findings of marriages in urbanShanghai”, Shehui kexue, No. 2(1981), p. 77Google Scholar .

24. Ruo, Li and Ping, Hang, “Fertility of three generations in Jiangsu province”, p. 40Google Scholar .

25. Ibid. p. 35.

26. Hajnal, J., “European marriage patterns in perspective”, in Glass, David R. and Eversley, D. E. C. (eds.), Population in History (Chicago: Aldine Publishing Co., 1965), p. 127Google Scholar .

27. Keqing, Kang, “Diligently study, positively teach and implement the new Marriage Law”, People's Daily, 19 09 1980, p. 3Google Scholar; Manni, Tan, “Why new marriage law was necessary”, China Reconstructs, Vol. 30, No. 3 (1981), pp. 17–20Google ScholarPubMed .

28. Tan Manni, ibid. p. 20.

29. Tien, H. Yuan, “Demography in China: from zero to now”, Population Index, Vol. 47, No. 4 (1981), pp. 683–710CrossRefGoogle Scholar .

30. Zheng, Liu, “March towards zero natural increase in population”, Sichuan Daxue xuebao (Sichuan University Journal), Philosophy and Social Sciences Series, No. 3 (1980), pp. 10–17Google Scholar .

31. Revolutionary Committee of Sichuan Province, “Draft regulations on family planningwork”, 24 02 1979, Doc. No. 14 (1979)Google Scholar .

32. Revolutionary Committee of Chengdu Municipality, “On the thorough implementation of the draft regulations on family planning work issued by the provincial revolutionary committee”, 11 05 1979, Doc. No. 15 (1979)Google Scholar . “Induced delivery” refers to post-first-trimester abortion.

33. Jian, Song, Xueyuan, Tian, Guangyuan, Li and Jinguan, Yu, “On the goal of our nation's planned population growth”, People's Daily, 7 03 1980Google Scholar .

34. Zhangxin, Liu and Kaiji, Cang, Population Statistics (Beijing: China Finance and Economics Publishing House, 1980), p. 13Google Scholar .

35. Chen, Pi-chao, Rural Health and Planning in China, p. 75Google Scholar .

36. Muhua, Chen, “Developing population science and making it serve the goal of controlling population growth”, Renkou yanjiu (Population Research), No. 3 (1981), pp. 1–7Google Scholar .

37. Naizong, Wang, “Solving China's population problems”, China Reconstructs, Vol. 29, No. 4 (1980), p. 5Google Scholar .

38. Du, Cheng, “Some problems of China's population and their solutions”, p. 6Google Scholar .

39. Liaowang, 20 November 1981.

40. State Statistical Bureau, 1982, Communiqué on the results of implementing the 1981 national economic plan. The China 1982 Census reported a rate of 14·55 per 1,000.

41. Beijing ribao, 14 September 1980, p. 2.