“Shengnü” (“leftover women”) has become a popular discourse in China during recent years. In existing literature and media coverage, discussion on shengnü often draws on population gender imbalance, western individualization theories, and women’s “too picky” mating criteria. Seeing beyond these perspectives, this research aims to problematize the myth of shengnü by explicating how this social phenomenon indicates the changing gender landscape and emerging new femininity in modern China. The empirical study is based on in-depth interviews with 36 women regarding their lived experience of partner selection through xiangqin (matchmaking). Their experience of participating in commercial xiangqin (matchmaking websites, matchmaking fairs, high-end matchmaking clubs, marriage hunting, and matchmaking TV shows) and parents-arranged xiangqin are investigated. Findings in the research demonstrate that empowered by a series of social structural changes in reform-era China, modern women have rising expectations in partner selection and they possess greater control over intimate relationship. It is argued that xiangqin in contemporary China provides a stage for rising new Chinese femininity characterized by pragmatic idealism. To maximize their gain in the marriage market, from modern commercialized xiangqin to “old fashioned” parents-arranged xiangqin, modern Chinese women proactively seize every opportunity to approach potential partners. However, while engaging in xiangqin, the practice in which the purpose of partner selection is directly and pragmatically foregrounded, they have not given up the romantic pursuit in their relationship ideal. The central discourse of “gan jue (感觉feelings)” in their mating concerns suggests that they consciously avoid downgrading themselves as slaves of pragmatism and proudly distinguish themselves from women of pervious generations who satisfy with conventional pattern of intimacy that centers on “da huo guo ri zi (搭伙过日子making a mundane living together)”. When dealing with intergenerational dynamics in partner selection, although they make conditional compromise pertaining to intimacy and resource flows between generations, they also demarcate their non-negotiable territory. This research helps to problematize the indefinable essence and transcendental nature in Western theorization of love; it also contributes to question existing literature that pragmatism and materialism dominate contemporary Chinese love culture under the context of market economy. It reveals that constraining cultural and structural forces still limit single women’s bargaining power in current Chinese society; and modern Chinese women make different kinds of adjustments to expand their life opportunities. Through frankly articulating their materially grounded concerns in partner selection, they redefine romance in precarious social environment and stage new morality in post-socialist China. By sticking to a “bu cou huo (不凑合no compromise)” stance in their pursuit of love, they demonstrate their persistence and strength as modern Chinese women. Their relevant site-specific femininity performance also exemplifies the flexibility of modern women in achieving their life ambitions. / published_or_final_version / Social Work and Social Administration / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

No description available.

吳鳳儀. / 論文(哲學碩士) -- 香港中文大學硏究院人類學部, 1997. / 參考文獻: leaves 127-134. / Wu Fengyi. / 前頁圖片：自梳女在姑婆屋之生活 --- p.i / 致辭 --- p.ii / 圖表目錄 --- p.iv / Chapter 第一章 --- 導論 --- p.1 / Chapter 一、 --- 硏究緣起 --- p.1 / Chapter 二、 --- 硏究架構 --- p.5 / Chapter 三、 --- 硏究方法 --- p.7 / Chapter 1. --- 參與與觀察 --- p.7 / Chapter 2. --- 深入訪談 --- p.7 / Chapter 3. --- 官方及地方文獻資料的應用 --- p.8 / Chapter 4. --- 田野實際調查時間表 --- p.8 / Chapter 四、 --- 文獻回顧 --- p.9 / Chapter 第二章 --- 絲山村的地理及人文生態背景 --- p.16 / Chapter 一、 --- 地理環境 --- p.16 / Chapter 1. --- 絲山村的沙田 --- p.17 / Chapter 2. --- 水路運輸 --- p.18 / Chapter 二、 --- 人口 --- p.18 / Chapter 三、 --- 僑居港澳的情況 --- p.20 / Chapter 四、 --- 寺廟 --- p.21 / Chapter 五、 --- 宗教活動 --- p.25 / Chapter 1. --- 關帝出游 --- p.26 / Chapter 2. --- 舞火龍 --- p.26 / Chapter 3. --- 喪禮 --- p.26 / Chapter 六、 --- 墟市 --- p.28 / Chapter 七、 --- 敎育 --- p.30 / Chapter 八、 --- 桑基魚塘及農業的發展 --- p.31 / Chapter 九、 --- 住屋 --- p.34 / Chapter 十、 --- 衣食 --- p.37 / Chapter 第三章 --- 不落夫家的婚姻情況 --- p.40 / Chapter 一、 --- 何謂不落夫家 --- p.40 / Chapter 1. --- 順德市內的婚姻形態及過程 --- p.41 / Chapter (1) --- 不落夫家婚姻形態 --- p.41 / Chapter (2) --- 不落夫家結婚過程 --- p.43 / Chapter 2. --- 學者對不落夫家的誤解及回應 --- p.49 / Chapter 3. --- 「買門口」的婚俗 --- p.52 / Chapter (1) --- 形成買門口的原因 --- p.53 / Chapter 4. --- 絲山村的買門口婚俗中顯示不同的應對方式 --- p.56 / Chapter (1) --- 轎心姑婆 --- p.56 / Chapter (2) --- 冥婚的情況 --- p.58 / Chapter 二、 --- 不落夫家者婚後的生活 --- p.63 / Chapter 1. --- 經濟就業 --- p.63 / Chapter (1) --- 經濟支持 --- p.63 / Chapter (2) --- 姑婆屋內的生活 --- p.64 / Chapter 2. --- 不落夫家婦女的居住方式 --- p.65 / Chapter 3. --- 老病垂危的應對 --- p.67 / Chapter 第四章 --- 自梳女 --- p.71 / Chapter 一、 --- 何謂自梳女 --- p.71 / Chapter 二、 --- 自梳儀式 --- p.74 / Chapter 三、 --- 自梳女的形成原因 --- p.76 / Chapter 1. --- 家庭絲業經濟勞動力需要 --- p.76 / Chapter 2. --- 繅絲廠人力的需求 --- p.77 / Chapter 3. --- 養蠶習俗 --- p.79 / Chapter 4. --- 家庭及心理因素 --- p.81 / Chapter 四、 --- 姑婆屋一一自梳女的聚居 處 --- p.84 / Chapter 1. --- 姑婆屋的建立 --- p.85 / Chapter 2. --- 姑婆屋內的情形 --- p.86 / Chapter (1) --- 過時節令 --- p.90 / Chapter (2) --- 標會 --- p.95 / Chapter (3) --- 屋內成員（自梳女）去世 --- p.96 / Chapter 五、 --- 自梳女的收徒與祭祀繼承 --- p.101 / Chapter 1. --- 自梳女對遺產之安排 --- p.101 / Chapter 2. --- 自梳女收徒與承繼 --- p.102 / Chapter 3. --- 自梳女對承繼的看法 --- p.103 / Chapter 第五章 --- 金蘭契與貞節觀 --- p.104 / Chapter 一、 --- 金蘭契的締結 --- p.104 / Chapter 1. --- 何謂結拜金蘭 --- p.104 / Chapter 2. --- 締結金蘭的儀式 --- p.105 / Chapter 3. --- 結拜後的情況 --- p.106 / Chapter 4. --- 死後的處理 --- p.109 / Chapter 二、 --- 村人對貞節觀的看法 --- p.112 / Chapter 三、 --- 自梳女對貞節觀的看法 --- p.113 / Chapter 四、 --- 自梳女對不落夫家的看法 --- p.115 / Chapter 五、 --- 村內男女對兩婚俗及此群女子的看法 --- p.116 / Chapter 第六章 --- 結論 --- p.117 / Chapter 附錄： --- 主要報導人簡介 --- p.123 / 參考書目 --- p.127 / Chapter 一、 --- 中文參考書目 --- p.127 / Chapter 二、 --- 英文參考書目 --- p.131

The population of late-married or non-married women is growing in the current society. Considering single women¡¦s unique consumer psychology and consumer behaviors, the researcher aimed to investigate the feasibility of a single women¡¦s virtual community by employing the web 2.0 and the visual community with a focus on its economic characteristics. The data were collected through the observations of related industries, interviews with experts and targeted groups, questionnaire investigation, and operation proposals. The results of the study were classified into two categories: the business model and the position strategy. The business model (a) can enhance increasing returns effects of the dynamic circle and the lock-in circle and accumulate members, (b) plays a role of informational intermediatry who integrates contents with strategic alliances, and (c) offers E-commence with which to satisfy users¡¦ dynamic needs. Three main phases¡Xexperience economy, reputation economy, and profit-earning¡Xare developed through such an advantage. The position strategy is to provide single women with an informational platform which addresses convenience, affinity, diversity, accuracy, safe-transaction, and customized-services. The platform includes four main topics: health, entertainment, self-growth, and investment. Therefore, it is able to meet single women¡¦s needs regarding health, travel, learning, and finance. The study also offers four suggestions for people who want to manage the virtual community. First, the virtual community should be developed based on market segmentation and take customers¡¦ intentions into account. Second, it should offer customized services and promote the worth of using experiences. Third, it should be a friendly, risk-free platform in which varied, up-dated information is given. Fourth, it should offer customers easy-using ways and allow them to share information as well as interact with others.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Department of English, General Literature and Rhetoric, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.F.A.)--University of North Texas, Dec., 2009. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.

In the mid-2000s, novels written by Indian women featuring a single woman's adventures in work and romance joined a transnational genre of writing called "chick lit" epitomized by novels such as Bridget Jones's Diary (Fielding 1996) and Sex and the City (Bushnell 1997). While chick lit has garnered some scholarly attention (Ferriss and Young 2006; Gill 2007; Harzewski 2011), studies remain largely focused on Anglo-American writing even while acknowledging the genre's global spread. There has been no in-depth analysis of chick lit written by Indian women in India, and it is this lacuna that this study seeks to fill.;The emergence of chick lit in India roughly a decade after economic liberalization makes the novels a useful lens through which to observe the formation of a new feminine neoliberal subjectivity - "the Indian singleton". I argue that the discourse of singleness in Indian chick lit novels is deployed not so much to solve the problem of being unmarried, but to resolve the tension between the demands of "Indian tradition" on urban, middle-class, young women and their desire for a selfhood inflected by transnational, neoliberal discourses of autonomy. By shifting my analytical focus away from the protagonist and her romantic partner to the mother-daughter relationship in the novels, I show how "tradition" and "modernity" are crystallized through discourses of food, fashion and the body. While "tradition" and "modernity" are conceptualized in these narratives as a binary, the protagonists seem to be attempting to articulate a selfhood that merges the two poles without having to pick a side. I draw on postcolonial, poststructuralist and feminist theory to argue that in their refusal to conform to ideas of Indian selfhood wherein individualism is circumscribed by community, the single women in Indian chick lit present, if not entirely represent, the idea of synthesis.

Although previous research on singlehood has often focused on middle-class career women, little is known about the life experiences of non-career path single women. This study examined the core marriage beliefs of never-married and once-married child-free, midlife women and the ways in which those beliefs have evolved over time. The sample consisted of 10 women, 5 never-married and 5 once-married between the ages of 35 and 48. For the purposes of this inquiry, non-career path was co-determined on the basis of occupation and educational background. The theoretical framework that guided this study combined a life course approach with a feminist perspective. Respondents were recruited through extensive networking and the sampling technique of snowballing. A qualitative methodology was employed utilizing the research strategy of in-depth interviewing. Data were analyzed on the basis of emergent themes and patterns. This study produced 3 salient findings. First, the process of forming core marriage beliefs is similar between never-married and once-married women. Although an experience of marrying (or an experience of not marrying) may change the way a woman views herself within the context of her marital beliefs, those core marital beliefs do not necessarily change. Second, whether never-married or once-married, single midlife women live ambivalent lives: acknowledging their singlehood status while simultaneously remaining hopeful of attaining a marital union. Finally, women made a clear distinction between getting married and marrying successfully. While most believed that getting married was a choice, having a successful marriage was a result of chance. Despite this appraisal, the ideal of marriage remained pervasive regardless of age or past experience. / Master of Science

Out of Date chronicles the filmmaker's personal journey as she tries to untangle her mixed feelings on singlehood and romance, and turns to the older generation for advice, tales of love and stories of success or failure. The documentary links and contrasts different generations' experiences in love and dating. Also, the film deals with loneliness, commitment, gender differences, and social and cultural practices of love and dating.

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1937 I81