Relational Dignity, State Law, and Chinese Leftover Women’s Choices in Marriage and Childbearing

IF 0.6 3区社会学 Q2 LAW

Asian Journal of Law and Society Pub Date : 2021-02-01 DOI:10.1017/als.2020.43

Qianni Liu

引用次数: 2

Abstract

Abstract Legal scholars tend to understand dignity as an intrinsic value that each individual gains at birth. This article aims to rethink dignity from a relational perspective. As dignity is highly dependent on other people’s judgement and evaluations in China, I use “relational dignity” to stress the precarious and relational nature of dignity in societies in which people attach great importance to guanxi networks. I discuss how relational dignity and state law interact to shape leftover women’s choices in marriage and childbearing. The precarious and relational nature of dignity motivates leftover women to follow dominant social norms in order to fit in. As a result, it reinforces state law’s discrimination against unmarried women and single mothers. On the other hand, the rubber-stamp quality of state law enables leftover women to use legal recognition to win societal recognition and attain relational dignity.

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关系尊严、国家法律与中国剩女婚育选择

摘要法律学者倾向于将尊严理解为每个人在出生时获得的内在价值。本文旨在从关系的角度重新思考尊严。由于尊严在中国高度依赖于他人的判断和评价，我用“关系尊严”来强调在人们高度重视关系网络的社会中，尊严的不稳定和关系性质。我讨论了关系尊严和国家法律如何相互作用，以塑造剩女在婚姻和生育方面的选择。尊严的不稳定和关系性促使剩女遵循主流社会规范以适应社会。因此，这加剧了州法律对未婚女性和单身母亲的歧视。另一方面，国家法律的橡皮图章性质使剩女能够利用法律认可来赢得社会认可并获得关系尊严。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Asian Journal of Law and Society LAW-

CiteScore

1.50

自引率

0.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： The Asian Journal of Law and Society (AJLS) adds an increasingly important Asian perspective to global law and society scholarship. This independent, peer-reviewed publication encourages empirical and multi-disciplinary research and welcomes articles on law and its relationship with society in Asia, articles bringing an Asian perspective to socio-legal issues of global concern, and articles using Asia as a starting point for a comparative exploration of law and society topics. Its coverage of Asia is broad and stretches from East Asia, South Asia and South East Asia to Central Asia. A unique combination of a base in Asia and an international editorial team creates a forum for Asian and Western scholars to exchange ideas of interest to Asian scholars and professionals, those working in or on Asia, as well as all working on law and society issues globally.