Abortion has become a common practice in modern China since the implementation of birth limitation policy in the 1950s. In recent decades, the growing prevalence of abortion among young unmarried migrant workers has aroused public concern. Socially, abortion among this group of young women is often seen as a reproductive health problem or anomalous phenomenon that needs to be managed and handled; at the individual level, abortion is singled out as a behavioural misconduct of young women, which signifies their moral failure. However, these indiscreet and injudicious perceptions fail to acknowledge the complexity and structural dynamics behind their choices.While past studies have examined abortion through perspectives including law, morality, policy and reproductive health, or analyzed its impact on macro politics and institutions at a societal level, few of them have looked into the authentic experiences of these women and examined the whole issue from the perspective of interpersonal and gender dynamics. To fill the gap of knowledge, the present study aims at comprehending this distinctive life event of women and reflecting women’s agency. Through conducting intensive ethnographic observation and in-depth interviews with 20 unmarried female migrant workers aged from 17 to 28 years old with diverse background, the underlining forces behind the occurrence of abortion are revealed, such as the influence of state family planning policy, the complex changes of lifestyle under market reform,and the heavy influence of partners and families on the decisions concerning marriage and childbirth. This study also traces the process within which abortion decisions are made, from sexual contacts, contraceptive uses, abortion decision-making,to the negotiation between partners, depicting women’s responses to structural constraints and how their choices are made under the influence of migration. / 人工流產(人流)議題一直是不同社會的關注焦點之一，它不但與婦女生殖健康和心理健康密切相關，同時亦涉及公共衛生及人口政策等領域。在中國，自五十年代計劃生育政策實施以降，人流成為解決意外懷孕的主要方法，近年來，未婚年輕女性的人流現象愈見普遍，當中不少是來自農村到城市打工的未婚流動女性，益發成為研究者關注的現象。有別於過去集中在人流的普遍性及對婦女生理健康的影響的定量研究，本研究以未婚流動女性的角度出發，以其第一身的敘述，理解她們的人流經歷及其在過程中展現的能動性。研究自去年六月進行，與二十位有人流經歷的未婚年輕女性進行深入訪談，以檢視其選擇避孕及決定人流的經過，瞭解她們與親密伴侶及雙方家庭在決定過程中的協調，同時透過觀察其生活環境、工作歷史，以及親密關係的互動方式與權力動態，以釐清政策、市場和人際動態在人流過程中所扮演的角色，及對這些女性的人流經歷所產生的影響。 / Lai, Yuen Shan. / Thesis M.Phil. Chinese University of Hong Kong 2014. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 117-124). / Abstracts also in Chinese. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on 11, October, 2016). / Lai, Yuen Shan. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:cuhk.edu.hk/oai:cuhk-dr:cuhk_1291496 |
| Date | January 2014 |
| Contributors | Lai, Yuen Shan (author.), Choi, Susanne Y. P. (thesis advisor.), Chinese University of Hong Kong Graduate School. Division of Sociology. (degree granting institution.) |
| Source Sets | The Chinese University of Hong Kong |
| Language | English, Chinese |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, bibliography, text |
| Format | electronic resource, electronic resource, remote, 1 online resource (124 leaves), computer, online resource |
| Coverage | China, China |
| Rights | Use of this resource is governed by the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons "Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International" License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) |
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