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Wedding consumption in Hong Kong: dynamics in marital and family relations. / CUHK electronic theses & dissertations collection

本研究旨在探討準新人通過婚禮消費來實踐家庭和婚姻關係。通過研究準新人如何商議和安排婚禮樣式、相關的消費項目和財務安排,從而剖析新婚夫婦在婚禮籌備期間如何維持父母與子女的關係和建構未來的姻親和婚姻關係。本研究研究方法是民族誌,資料是從與三十三位新娘和二十一位新郎進行深入訪談並參與了他們的婚禮所獲得。 / 選購浪漫的、具風格的和舖張的婚禮的讓準新人展示品位,也表示準新人的結合是以自由戀愛為基礎的;但同時,婚禮也是結二姓之好的儀式,在中國傳統上公告新娘納入新郎的家族,這賦予準新人的父母參與婚禮形式和相關消費決策的過程。在此情況下,現代婚姻追求高獨立性與父母的期望為兩代關係帶來緊張和矛盾。另一方面,現代親子關係強調和諧融洽,對兩代透過商議婚禮消費來實踐帶來另一種挑戰,這些包括了兩層面:(1)親子和姻親關係;(2)維持婚姻的獨立性。 / 從探討準新人和其父母商議婚禮消費、財務安排和有關的分工,本研究得出以下發現:從家庭層面,基於道德倫理責任,準新人購買舖張婚宴以維持和建構兩代關係。同時,為突顯新婚夫婦的自主性,他們購買了不同的新興婚禮服務。而且,這些家庭關係和社會角色的定位也反映在兩代商討聛禮和嫁妝之上。 / 另外,從夫婦層面上,準新人透過選購具風格的婚禮物品和服務來體現二人結合為一個共同決策的消費單位,這個決策過程受雙方的性別態度和角色所影響;這些影響也反映夫婦的財務負擔和婚禮分工上。整體而言,儘管新婚夫婦在建構維持、婚姻、姻親和親子關係在婚禮籌備上有不同的矛盾,但在表面上皆能保持和諧的關係。 / This research studies how marrying couples do marital and family relationships through wedding consumption. By analyzing data obtained from an ethnographic study based on in-depth interviews and participant observations from a sample of 33 brides and 21 grooms, I analyze how marrying couples do marital and family relations, i.e. how they create, maintain and transform both familial and marital memberships and boundaries through the narration and reasoning of their wedding choice and relevant monetary practices. Even though public perception dictates that a wedding is owned by the couple to publicly display their independent coupledom in a romantic, stylistic and lavish ways, it is also an important family occasion that incorporates the bride into the groom’s family. These two contradictory conceptions of independent marriage and harmonious family relations put the couple and their parents into a dilemma in whether to define the wedding as jointly or solely owned by the couple. / I probed into the negotiation of lavish and stylistic weddings and the relevant money management and division of wedding labor to examine relationship making processes. The data shows that, on the family level: 1) the couple incorporates itself into the larger family network based on perceived moral obligations, the desire to maintain parent-child relationship and also to establish in-laws relationships, (e.g. through buying a lavish wedding banquet); 2) the couple also purchase various wedding consumption goods and services to differentiate the coupledom from the family network, (e.g. through wedding photography); 3) negotiation of new and existing family roles are also reflected through the couple’s negotiation of bride price and dowry with their parents. On the couple’s level, they work towards the creation of an independent coupledom a joint decision-making and consumption unit - through variously embracing and resisting stylistic consumption goods and services in the wedding market. Last but not least, the couple also negotiates the pattern of financial responsibility and division of labor based on gender ideology and “marriage ideal“. In general, couples mostly manage to create and maintain harmonious marital and family relationships despite undercurrents of tension. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Tso, Ho Yee Vienne. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2012. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 242-255). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract also in Chinese. / Chapter Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Background of this Study --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- The Significance of Wedding Consumption --- p.2 / Chapter 1.3 --- Doing Weddings --- p.4 / Chapter 1.4 --- Outline of the Thesis --- p.6 / Chapter Chapter 2 --- The Social Relational Approach to Understand Wedding Consumption --- p.8 / Chapter 2.1 --- Introduction --- p.8 / Chapter 2.2 --- Rational Choice Theory of Consumption --- p.9 / Chapter 2.3 --- The Structural Relational Embedded Consumer Market --- p.12 / Chapter 2.4 --- Wedding Consumption --- p.18 / Chapter 2.5 --- The “We“ and the “Bigger We“ --- p.29 / Chapter 2.6 --- Chapter Summary --- p.43 / Chapter Chapter 3 --- Research Methods --- p.45 / Chapter 3.1 --- Introduction --- p.45 / Chapter 3.2 --- Participation Observations --- p.46 / Chapter 3.3 --- Profile of Informants --- p.58 / Chapter 3.4 --- Types of In-depth Interviews --- p.63 / Chapter 3.5 --- Leaving the Field --- p.70 / Chapter Chapter 4 --- The Negotiation of Wedding Arrangement --- p.74 / Chapter 4.1 --- Introduction --- p.74 / Chapter 4.2 --- The Characteristics of the Respondents’ Weddings --- p.75 / Chapter 4.3 --- Between the “We“ and “Bigger We“: Demarcation of Wedding Ceremonies --- p.77 / Chapter 4.4 --- Organization of the Wedding Banquet --- p.89 / Chapter 4.5 --- Chapter Summary --- p.112 / Chapter Chapter 5 --- Bride Price and Dowry --- p.116 / Chapter 5.1 --- Introduction --- p.116 / Chapter 5.2 --- The Wedding Expenditures --- p.118 / Chapter 5.3 --- The Practice of Bride Price and Dowry. --- p.124 / Chapter 5.4 --- Practicing the Idea of Filial Daughters --- p.132 / Chapter 5.5 --- Negotiation of Bride Price: the Traditional Route --- p.141 / Chapter 5.6 --- Negotiation of Bride Price: the Transitional Route --- p.150 / Chapter 5.7 --- Chapter Summary --- p.162 / Chapter Chapter 6 --- The Making of the Coupledom --- p.167 / Chapter 6.1 --- Introduction --- p.167 / Chapter 6.2 --- Building up the “We“ in the Wedding Market --- p.168 / Chapter 6.3 --- The Public Display of the “We“ --- p.179 / Chapter 6.4 --- The Making of the Ideal Wedding. --- p.188 / Chapter 6.5 --- Chapter Summary --- p.225 / Chapter Chapter 7 --- Conclusion --- p.229 / Chapter 7.1 --- Introduction --- p.229 / Chapter 7.2 --- Wedding Consumption --- p.229 / Chapter 7.3 --- The Formation of the Coupledom and Wider Family Network --- p.230 / Chapter 7.4 --- Implications for Future Research and Limitations --- p.236

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:cuhk.edu.hk/oai:cuhk-dr:cuhk_328046
Date January 2012
ContributorsTso, Ho Yee Vienne., Chinese University of Hong Kong Graduate School. Division of Sociology.
Source SetsThe Chinese University of Hong Kong
LanguageEnglish, Chinese
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeText, bibliography
Formatelectronic resource, electronic resource, remote, 1 online resource (v, 255 leaves) : ill.
CoverageChina, Hong Kong, China, Hong Kong, China, Hong Kong
RightsUse 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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