Name: Kong Fanlei  Student ID:
Research paper supervisor:Dr.Sekou Conde
Minzu University of China
2008-2009 Academic Year
 
 
Abstract:
Over the past three decades, China has witnessed unprecedented economic prosperity, a decrease in family solidarity, an increase in social problems, and a dramatic rise in the incidence of divorce.
  This article describes the relationship between culture and divorce in China. The first section summarizes the traditional beliefs and values of the Chinese culture on family, characteristics of contemporary China society. The second section focuses on factors believed to influence the divorce rate. The third section focuses on the impact of divorce on Chinese families. Finally, the solutions and suggestions for adapting it to Chinese families are proposed and discussed at the end of this article.
A thorough literature review will examine the effects of divorce.
 
Key words:  Contemporary China; Divorce; Reasons; Effects; Solutions
 
Introduction and Background:
 
1) Definitions:
Divorce: A divorce is the termination of a marriage by legal action, requiring a petition or complaint for divorce (or dissolution in some states) by one party [1].
2) The Benefits of a Healthy Marriage:
Marriage and family are the oldest and most important social institutions in modern history, providing the foundation for many of the successes on which our society depends [2]. The origins of modern divorce patterns date back more than 200 years and lie in the formation of the same societal values that elevated the marital relationship above all other personal and familial commitments; the importance of emotion, passion, personal identity, and self validation emphasized in the couple relationship [3]. The immediate causes of divorce may vary , but, examined in a larger perspective, both the role of divorce in today's modern society and its high rate of occurrence stem from the same reasons that made healthy marriages central to people's happiness throughout the past few centuries, and deterioration of the marital relationship so much more traumatic to the family system today [4].
Publications such as The Journal of Family Nursing and Physiology & Behavior, make such information about the benefits of marriage widely available by demonstrating how marriage has a powerful effect on both health and illness. Because marriage is the central relationship for most adults, is has been examined as a risk factor in determining one's state of wellbeing just as blood pressure, cigarette smoking, blood lipids, obesity and physical activity[5]. Statements such as, "a good marriage is both men's and women's best bet for living a long and healthy life," and "a married man with heart disease can be expected to live, on average, 1,400 days longer (nearly 4 years) than an unmarried man with a healthy heart" were both presented to the 7th annual International Family Nursing Conference (IFNC) in 2005 [6]. In addition, such findings as "married people, on average, enjoy better mental and physical health that the unmarried" and "in contrast to their married counterparts, non-married women have 50% greater mortality, compared with 250% for men" [7] make the claim that a good marriage is beneficial to our health.
3) Traditional Cultural Beliefs of Chinese Families
The family, as the basic social and economic unit of Chinese society, is most predominantly shaped by beliefs and values from the social philosophy of Confucianism[8].The relationship rules that govern social life and secure social stability include filial piety, the foundation stone of Chinese society; face; collectivism; social harmony; and limited and bounded trust. Filial piety involves obligations to respect and care for family elders and to behave in ways to bring honor to, and avoid shaming, the family. Face is earned through correct social and moral conduct and is a source of personal dignity, while shame is associated with failure to live up to expected norms of behavior[9].Collectivism and social harmony require that family interests and goals take priority over those of the individual, with members expected to sacrifice their own needs and wishes for the preservation of relationships and the social unit[10].Decision making is characterized by consensus, cooperation, compromise, negotiation(sometimes with the assistance of a family elder),and the avoidance of conflict and direct confrontation. Indirect forms of communication, self-discipline, and strict control of emotions are valued, and expression of emotion in public is seen as a sign of weakness. Limited and bounded trust implies an absolute trust in the family, limited and conditional trust of friends and acquaintances, and indifference to, or distrust of, society in general.
Marriage remains a solemn and important event for most Chinese people. Traditional belief equates a perfect marriage with personal self-worth and achievement as described by the Chinese idiom, “get married and start one’s career”. As a collectivist society, the Chinese emphasize interpersonal bonds and have a greater awareness of, and responsiveness to, the needs of others than those from more individualist societies, such as the United States，where independence is valued and there is less concern for others. Hsu contrasted the Western and Chinese values regarding passionate love. He described the Chinese as caught up in a “web of interpersonal relationships”, conforming to society, and “underplay all matters of the heart,” whereas American culture stresses the individual’s rights to free emotional expression. Thus romantic love fits the North American culture better than the Chinese one where obligations to others, especially one’s parents are of great importance. Hsu wrote[11], “an American asks, “How does my heart feel?” A Chinese asks, “What will other people say?”.
4) Characteristics of Modern Chinese Society
The new 1981 Marriage Law advocated late marriage and delaying the birth of the first child after marriage. Before the 1960s the average age at marriage was about 18 years for rural people and 20 years for urban people, by 1991 it was 28 for men and 25 for women. In these marriages, as noted by Bullough and Ruan(1994) [12],41%of the women had a traditional arranged marriage or modified traditional marriage(i.e. where the bride had some say in the arrangements).
Nevertheless, changes are taking place in attitudes to love and marriage as evidenced by the increase in divorce rate: in 1979 there were 319,252 divorces while in 1998 there were 1,190,214 divorces. Some of this increase is simply due to the greater number of married couples but there is a real increase in the divorces rate to 1.9, although this is still low compared to that in the West [13].However, there would be a greater increase if divorces were easier to obtain: for example, in 1991,1,405,789 couples applied for a divorce but only 829,449 were granted. [14]
 
Reasons
 
Popular explanations for the recent rise in divorce are the breakdown of traditional family and communal values, a lessened stigma associated with marital dissolution, and the liberalization of laws that have made it easier to dissolve marriages. On the basis of their finding of a continuous rise in divorce for cohorts of American marriages since the Civil War, Preston and Mc Donald [15]suggest that the processes of industrialization, urbanization, and increasing individual freedom associated with the modern era have contributed to the secular decline in marital stability. Similar suggestions can be found in most classical and contemporary statements about the impact of modernization on the family [16].
The increase in China’s divorce rate has been attributed to the rising status and financial independence of women, a weakening of traditional beliefs, a developing sense of individualism, changing attitudes about marriage and divorce, financial and employment stress, cross-border employment, and extramarital affairs(EMAs) [17].Expectations of marriage as a source of happiness and personal fulfillment are increasing ,and, as a result of universal education, women are better educated, more independent, and have more options than staying in unhappy and unfulfilling marriages[18].Attitudes toward marriage and divorce are relaxing, and more adults are remaining single, cohabitating, and marrying later in life. Companionate marriages based on romantic attraction and equity in role sharing are increasing. Traditional values and the need for the financial support that kept traditional marriages together are eroding, and new expectations of communication, care, emotional support , and individualism are emerging.
1) No-fault Divorce
 The dramatic social changes of the 1980s influenced a divorce reform movement that swept across China In 1981 China enacted "no-fault" divorce legislation, which abolished proof of fault as the requirement for the dissolution of a marriage, which was a marked contrast from the previous requirement to prove the innocence or guilt of either marriage partner in order to be awarded a divorce.
Establishing "irreconcilable differences" as a sufficient cause for the granting of a divorce was a significant reform, [19] however, little knowledge was sought, or thought focused, on the impact that [...]

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