In this Book
- The Ugly Wife Is a Treasure at Home: True Stories of Love and Marriage in Communist China
- Book
- 2014
- Published by: University of Nebraska Press
summary
“The ugly wife is a treasure at home” is not just an idle expression in China. For centuries, Chinese marriage involved matchmakers, child brides, dowries, and concubines, until the People’s Republic of China was established by Mao Zedong and his Communist Party in 1949. Initially encouraging citizens to reject traditional arranged marriages and wed for love, the party soon spurned ”the sin of putting love first,” fearful that romantic love would distract good Communists from selflessly carrying out the State’s agenda. Under Mao, the party established the power to approve or reject proposed marriages, to dictate where couples would live, and to determine if they would live together. By the 1960s and 1970s, romantic love had become a counterrevolutionary act punishable by “struggle sessions” or even imprisonment. The importance of Chinese sons, however, did not wane during Mao’s thirty-year regime. As such, in a world where nobody spoke of love, 99 percent of young women still married. The Ugly Wife Is a Treasure at Home draws the reader into the world of love in Communist China through the personal memories of those who endured the Cultural Revolution and the generations that followed. This collection of intimate and remarkable stories gives readers a rare view of Chinese history, social customs, and Communism from the perspective of today’s ordinary citizens.
Table of Contents
Download Full Book
- Title Page, Copyright
- pp. i-vi
- Acknowledgments
- pp. xi-14
- Note on Pronunciation
- pp. 15-16
- Love after Revolution
- pp. 28-36
- We Didn’t Know What Love Was
- pp. 37-47
- The First Group Wedding in Zhengzhou
- pp. 57-62
- The “Old Hand” Man
- pp. 63-68
- Marriage Is Nothing Special
- pp. 73-79
- Wearing White for Chairman Mao
- pp. 80-86
- The Boy with the Baby-Raise-Wife
- pp. 87-92
- My Reasons for Hating My Father
- pp. 93-98
- You Know Your Boyfriend Is Married If . . .
- pp. 104-108
- My Lover’s Name Is Sam
- pp. 112-122
- For One Tree, Do Not Sacrifice the Forest
- pp. 123-130
- A Man Who Could Speak His Own Name
- pp. 154-162
- Six Times Love
- pp. 176-181
- A Wife of Noble Character, Who Can Find?
- pp. 197-204
- She Cut Out My Chicken Eyes
- pp. 210-214
- The Buddhist Oracle Said “No Boyfriends”
- pp. 218-225
- I Thought We Would Be Together Forever
- pp. 226-232
- I Thought to Myself
- pp. 233-239
- A Conventional Man
- pp. 240-244
- There Are Three Kinds of Chinese Parents
- pp. 245-254
- Conclusion
- pp. 255-280
- Selected Bibliography
- pp. 287-288
Additional Information
ISBN
9781612347042
Related ISBN(s)
9781612346946
MARC Record
OCLC
883571285
Pages
304
Launched on MUSE
2014-12-05
Language
English
Open Access
No