“A Married Out Daughter Is Like Spilt Water”?

Abstract

This article investigates how the intersection of two state policies, the market reforms initiated in 1978 and the “one-child” policy launched in 1979, is shaping gender, family, and kin relations in rural North China. It focuses particularly on women's ties with their natal families after marriage; these have become closer, with more frequent daughter-parent contact. The qualitative data were collected from interviews and focus group discussions conducted intermittently between 2002 and 2004 in three Hebei counties. The changing context of the new political economy, brought about by market reforms, has broken down the pre-reform institutional and economic constraints inherent in daughter-parent ties, thereby enhancing these relationships in post-reform rural society. Moreover, the “one-child” policy, which aims to regulate individual fertility and retard population growth, has had the unintended consequence of strengthening relations between married daughters and their birth parents.