Notes
no t e s All translations are the author’s, unless otherwise indicated. introduction 1. Wang and Di, “1.61 Million Couples Break Up in 2004,” 2. 2. Wang and Chen, “Divorce Rate Rises for Seven Straight Years in China,” http://english.people.com.cn/90882/8134709.html (accessed September 2, 2013). 3. Ministry of Civil Affairs, Minzheng bu fabu 2010 nian shehui fuwu fazhan tongji baogao, http://www.mca.gov.cn/article/zwgk/ mzyw/201106/20110600161364.shtml (accessed October 2, 2011). 4. Chen Huafei. “Pandian Zhongguo lihunlü zuigao de shida chengshi,” http://health.people.com.cn/GB/14740/106977/10120416.html (accessed September 2, 2013). 5. Maureen Fan, “Chinese Slough Off Old Barriers,” A01. For a comprehensive statistical report on the married and divorced populations from 1980 to 2007 in Shanghai, see Shanghai tongji ju, Shanghai tongji nianjian 2008, 43. 6. Faison, “In China, Rapid Social Changes Bring a Surge in the Divorce Rate,” http://www.nytimes.com/1995/08/22/world/in-china-rapid-socialchanges -bring-a-surge-in-the-divorce-rate.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm (accessed August 17, 2003). 7. Xia Yinlan, “Zhongguo shi lihun zui ziyou de guojia,” http://news.sina. com.cn/c/sd/2009-07-07/140718171866 _4.shtml (accessed May 27, 2010). 8. Sun, “Zhongguo shi lihun zui ziyou”; Lü, “‘Lihun nan’ neng jiang lihun lü ma?” A05. 9. Morley, Home Territories, 29. 10. The use of the term “middle class” in contemporary Chinese society has been greatly contested. Even the translation of the term has not yet been fixed. Instead of zhongchan jieji, a politicized social segment that seems to suggest an explicit connection with the Maoist ideology of class struggle, “middle class” has often been translated as zhongchan jieceng or zhongjian jieceng, referring to the social group of well-educated affluent Notes to Pages 3–8 192 urbanites sharing a certain capacity and taste for commodity consumption. A number of prominent sociologists such as Zhou Xiaohong and Lu Xueyi have investigated the demographic constitution of the Chinese middle class. Some intend to define the great contribution of a stable and affluent middle class to the building of a “harmonious society.” See Zhou Xiaohong, Zhongguo zhongchan jieceng diaocha; Lu Xueyi, Dangdai zhongguo shehui jieceng yanjiu baogao; Zhu Yaoqun, Zhongchan jieceng yu hexie shehui. Rather than establishing the clear-cut boundaries of the Chinese middle class through the use of standardized survey questionnaires or statistical numbers , in this book I am more inclined to examine the imagination, identification , and circulation of a middle-class domestic culture in cultural representations . As Charles Seller has aptly put it, “The so-called middle class was constituted not by modes and relations of production but by ideology” (The Market Revolution, 237). 11. Xu Anqi, “Lihun yu nüxing diwei ji quanyi zhi tantao,” 199. 12. Wong, “Family Reform through Divorce Law in the PRC”; and Diamant , Revolutionizing the Family, 317. 13. The seven conditions include a wife’s barrenness, wanton conduct, neglect of her husband’s parents, loquacity, theft, jealousy, and chronic illness . However, a wife could not be expelled under three conditions (san buqu): if she observed three years of mourning for her parents-in-law, if she had no natal family to return to, and if she had gone through adversity with her husband (from rags to riches). The wife could request a divorce if her husband deserted her for more than three years or if she was abused by her husband. See Wong, “Family Reform through Divorce Law in the PRC,” 269; Philip Huang, “Women’s Choices under the Law,” 12; and Bernhardt, “Women and the Law,” 189. 14. Haiyan Lee, Revolution of the Heart, 95–96. 15. She, “Toward Ideology.” 16. Zhang Xipo, Zhongguo hunyin lifa shi, 74. 17. Ibid., 77. 18. Lao She, Lihun. The passage is quoted from The Quest for Love of Lao Lee, trans. Helena Kuo, 52. Mr. Li is transliterated as Lao Lee in this edition. 19. Foucault, The History of Sexuality, vol. 1, 4–5. 20. Larson, From A Q to Lei Feng, 1. 21. Haiping Yan, Chinese Women Writers and the Feminist Imagination , 17. 22. Ibid., 16. 23. Leo Lee, The Romantic Generation of Modern Chinese Writers. 24. Haiping Yan, Chinese Women Writers and the Feminist Imagination, 15. Recently, a biography of Zhu An—Lu Xun’s first wife from an arranged marriage, who was illiterate, short, and had bound feet—was published. See Qiao, Wo ye shi Lu Xun de yiwu. 25. When Eileen Chang was...
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