Legal Consciousness of the Leftover Woman: Law and Qing in Chinese Family Relations

Abstract

AbstractThis paper analyses how the interaction of law and qing (情) shapes ordinary Chinese people’s legal consciousness. Ordinary Chinese people rely on qing, or the normal feelings, or attitudes of the public, to judge whether a particular law is just and how they should react to the law. By investigating Chinese leftover women’s legal consciousness regarding marriage and childbearing, this article has developed a theory to discuss Chinese people’s different forms of legal consciousness either when the law is in opposition to qing or when it is in alliance with qing. I argue that these variations of legal consciousness result from the dynamic relationship between qing and different types and levels of legality, including state law.