Between Men: Uxorilocal Marriage Reconsidered in Chinese Western Old Well

Author:

Hu Tingting1

Affiliation:

1. English Department , Renmin University of China , No. 59 Zhongguancun Street, Haidian District , Beijing , 100872 , China

Abstract

Abstract This article examines the award-winning Chinese Western Old Well 老井 (1987) with a focus on the marital relationship of uxorilocal marriage 入贅 (ruzhui). Drawing on Eve Sedgwick’s (1992) insights on male homosocial bonds, this article sheds light on the workings of two sets of triangular relationships in the film: the first consisting of Sun Wangquan, Zhao Qiaoying, and Xifeng and the second consisting of Sun Wangquan, Sun Wangcai, and Xifeng. Together, these two triangles form an asymmetric square due to the structural communal differences attached to the corresponding gendered placeholders. This article investigates the embedded gender bias in patriarchal kinship and argues that women tend to be either utilized as asset carriers (Xifeng) or banished as destabilizers (Qiaoying) to ensure the formation of a male homosocial bond (Wangquan, Wangcai, and Xifeng’s dead husband) that eventually resolves crises of masculinity through reinforcing male-centered continuity and prosperity. Furthermore, the article suggests how the practice of ruzhui, though seemingly feminizing men and empowering women, serves to reinforce patrilineality based on gender essentialism.

Funder

This article is supported by the Comparative Literature program in the department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at the University of South Carolina with a research paper award in 2022.

Publisher

Walter de Gruyter GmbH

Reference19 articles.

1. Barlow, Tani. 2004. The Question of Women in Chinese Feminism. Durham: Duke University Press.

2. Berry, Chris, and Paul Clark. 1991. “Major Directors.” In Perspectives on Chinese Cinema, edited by Chris Berry, 187–202. London: British Film Institute Publishing.

3. Chow, Rey. 1995. “Digging an Old Well: The Labor of Social Fantasy.” In Primitive Passions: Visuality, Sexuality, Ethnography, and Contemporary Chinese Cinema, 55–78. New York: Columbia University Press.

4. Hammarén, Nils, and Thomas Johansson. 2014. “Homosociality: In Between Power and Intimacy.” Sage Open 4 (1): 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244013518057.

5. Jin, Xiaoyi, Shuzhuo Li, and Marcus W. Feldman. 2006. “Marriage Form and Fertility in Rural China: An Investigation in Three Counties.” Population Research and Policy Review 25 (2): 141–56. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11113-006-0001-7.

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