Media Presentations of Chinese– Foreign Marriage in Reform- Era China
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Media Presentations of Chinese– Foreign Marriage in Reform- Era China Wang Pan Doctor of Philosophy in International Studies 2013 Certificate of Authorship/Originality I certify that the work in this thesis has not previously been submitted for a degree nor has it been submitted as part of requirements for a degree except as fully acknowledged within the text. I also certify that the thesis has been written by me. Any help that I have received in my research work and the preparation of the thesis itself has been acknowledged. In addition, I certify that all information sources and literature used are indicated in the thesis. Signature of Student WANG PAN ________________________________________ Abstract The growth of Chinese–foreign marriage in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) since 1979 is a largely unexplored phenomenon. This thesis fills part of the gap in the academic literature by examining legal regulations, government statistics and media presentations of Chinese–foreign marriage in the PRC between 1979 and 2011. Legal documents and government statistics are analyzed to identify different types of Chinese–foreign marriages, changing rates of marriage and divorce, and changes in the demographic composition of Chinese–foreign marriages over the last three decades. A discourse analysis of over 500 print and online media reports, 57 television documentaries, and 20 television talk show programs, reveals the changing motivations, mate selection preferences, gender relations, and patterns of marriage-related mobility, that are associated with Chinese–foreign marriages and divorces today. In examining how China’s media have presented the phenomenon of Chinese–foreign marriage in the reform-era, the thesis sheds light on both processes of social change and current imaginings of China’s position in the world. Acknowledgements I am indebted to a great number of people for the instigation and direction of this thesis. I would like to acknowledge my debt to the authors cited, to a great many others whose published work has contributed to the thesis’ analysis and outcomes, as well as those who provided me with the inspirations and ideas for the production of the thesis. My own research and the completion of this thesis would not have been possible without the following people. First and foremost, I would like to express my utmost gratitude to my principal supervisor Associate Professor Elaine Jeffreys for her intellectual stimulation, patience, and the considerable time and effort she invested in my work, which helped me hurdle many of the research obstacles. Thanks are due to the China Research Centre and Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) for providing a stimulating academic and professional culture, and funding my conference presentations in and outside of Australia. Thanks also go to Dr Ivan Roberts for tidying up the graphs in the thesis; Dr Susette Cooke for proofreading Chapter 1 and the conclusion to this thesis; Dr Terry Royce at the ELSSA Centre of UTS for proofreading Chapter 4 and Chapter 7; Dr Lorraine Shannon for professional editing of the entire thesis; Sophie Wang for proofreading translations of titles of media reports; and Cai Wei and Huang Meijun at the UTS Library Information Services for guiding me through the use of various databases and helping me find the information I needed. On a more personal note, I would like to thank Dr Lauren Gorfinkel. I met Lauren, now a colleague and good friend, at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, and she introduced me to the PhD program at UTS and to Professor Louise Edwards, who supported my subsequent enrolment in the doctoral program at UTS. I would also like to express my appreciation to Professor Richard Smith, Associate Professor Guo Yingjie, Dr Yang Jingqing, Dr Kate Bower, John Roberts, Mehal Krayem, Ming Liang, and my fellow PhD colleagues at UTS, for their kindness and support during my period of study at UTS. Finally, I thank my mother Wang Ningsheng and uncle Yu Gongjie for their steady care and constant support, as well as my mum’s loving prayers for all of my endeavours in life. PhD-related conference papers ‘Media presentations of cross-strait marriage in the People’s Republic of China’, The 19th Biennial Conference of the Asian Studies Association of Australia (ASAA), The University of Western Sydney, 11–13 July 2012. ‘Media presentations of intercultural marriage and divorce in the People’s Republic of China (1979–2010)’, Melbourne Conference on China: The City, the Countryside and the World, Melbourne University, 6–7 August 2011. ‘Media presentations of intercultural marriage in the People’s Republic of China (1979–2009)’, Association for Asian Studies (AAS) and International Convention of Asian Scholars (ICAS) Joint Conference, Honolulu, Hawaii, 31 March to 3 April 2011. Contents Introduction 1 1 Chinese–Foreign Marriage: Background 8 What are ‘Chinese–foreign marriages’? 8 Initial obstacles to Chinese–foreign marriage in the PRC 14 Governing marriage in the reform era 19 Researching intercultural marriage 28 Researching Chinese–foreign marriage in the PRC 38 Conclusion 42 2 Newspaper Coverage of Chinese–Foreign Marriage in the PRC 44 Changing numerical trends 44 Different countries of origin 54 Hypergamy 62 ‘Love’ in the 2000s 69 Hypergamy revisited 74 Conclusion 79 3 Newspaper Coverage of Chinese–Foreign Divorce in the PRC 81 Chinese–foreign divorce: a rising trend 82 Deception, adultery, bigamy and divorce 89 Domestic violence and divorce 97 Marriage introduction services and divorce 106 Conclusion 114 4 Celebrity Chinese–Foreign Marriage in China’s Media 116 China’s first celebrity Chinese–foreign marriage 118 Celebrity Chinese–foreign marriage in the 1990s 125 Celebrity Chinese–foreign marriage in the 2000s 134 Conclusion 143 5 Celebrity Chinese–Foreign Divorce in China’s Media 145 High rates of divorce 147 Speculation and hearsay 154 Amicable divorces and exemplary fatherhood 160 Female autonomy and exemplary motherhood 167 Conclusion 173 6 Documenting Chinese–Foreign Marriage 175 New documentary and Chinese–foreign marriage 177 Cross -Strait marriage 186 Cross -Strait marriage in the media 192 Rural Chinese and foreign nationals 201 Conclusion 210 7 Television Talk Shows and Chinese–Foreign Marriage 211 Television talk shows in the PRC 212 Foreign Chinese 220 Foreign spouses as country bumpkins 226 Making marital conflict ‘fun’ 231 Conclusion 239 8 Concluding Comments 241 References 253 Appendix 1: 317 Sources of Statistical Information on Marriages and Divorces Registered in the PRC Appendix 2: 324 Documentary Films on Chinese–Foreign Marriage (57 Episodes) Appendix 3: 329 Television Talk Shows on Chinese–Foreign Marriage (20 Episodes) Introduction This thesis examines the phenomenon of Chinese–foreign marriage in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) since 1979, and the nature of media discussions concerning this. Chinese legal documents divide such marriages into three categories according to the permanent residency and/or citizenship status of the non-mainland Chinese marrying party. The first category of marriage involves a marriage between citizens of the PRC (Zhongguo gongmin) and foreign nationals (waiguoren, literally ‘people from another country’), which may include former citizens of the PRC who have acquired foreign citizenship (waiji huaren) but excludes citizens of Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. The second involves a marriage between citizens of the PRC residing in mainland China (neidi jumin) and citizens of Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. These are territories that the PRC government claims as part of a unified or ‘greater’ China, but have separate legal jurisdictions. The third category involves a marriage between citizens of the PRC residing in mainland China and ‘overseas Chinese’ (huaqiao) – PRC citizens who settled abroad but maintained PRC citizenship, and who may or may not have returned to live in the PRC. Broadly speaking, the term ‘Chinese–foreign marriage’ is equivalent to the term ‘intercultural marriage’ and the two terms will be used interchangeably henceforth. An ‘intercultural marriage’ refers to ‘a union of two people from diverse cultures as well as different countries’ (Romano 1988: xii). Such a union may also, but not necessarily, indicate differences in race, ethnicity, religion and language (Romano 1988: xii; see also Breger and Hill 1998: 7). 1 From the founding of the PRC in 1949 until the early 1990s, Chinese–foreign marriage was an unusual occurrence in mainland China. Political differences between communist China and ‘the rest of the world’ severely limited the opportunities for such unions to develop in the first place. Restrictions on the capacity of foreign nationals to enter and reside in the PRC and on the ability of Chinese citizens to obtain passports and travel overseas further limited the opportunities for such marriages (Liu Guofu 2009: 312–318). In fact, government statistics on the number of Chinese–foreign marriages registered in the PRC only became available in 1979 – that is, after the PRC shifted away from a centralized planned economy and a position of relative international isolation, and adopted a policy of market-based economic reforms and opening up to the rest of the world in December 1978. These statistics indicate that approximately 8,460 couples registered a Chinese–foreign marriage in the PRC in 1979. That figure climbed to a peak of 78,672 couples in 2001 and decreased to 49,036 couples in 2010 (Zhonghua renmin gongheguo minzhengbu 1979, 2002, 2011, see Appendix 1). To date, there is no major study of the phenomenon of Chinese–foreign marriage in reform-era China. This study aims to fill this gap by examining the various aspects of Chinese–foreign marriages as portrayed in print and online media and television programming in the PRC. In doing so, I show how the phenomenon of intercultural marriage has been presented and circulated for public consumption in China today, focusing on issues such as the changing demographic character of Chinese–foreign marriages, transnational mobility, gender and family relations, identity, motivation, and the rising incidence of Chinese–foreign divorce.