A Cross-cultural Feminist Analysis of Dominant Discourse on Modern Chinese Marriages: Is the personal still political?

Abstract

In view of China’s deepening engagement in Africa, I consider progress with regard to gender roles as a valuable measure by which to comparatively gauge the emancipatory feminist potential of Chinese and South African marriage practices. By way of cross-cultural feminist analysis, I thereby attempt to evaluate the institutionalised master discourse on gender dynamics within marriage in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). In particular, this ideological critique will employ second-wave feminism’s “personal as political” theoretical lens, as well as both Jacques Lacan’s theory of discourse and Pierre Bourdieu’s distinction between orthodox and heterodox discourses. Additionally, the dominant discourse on marriage in the post-Maoist PRC is argued to be both oppressive (same-sex marriage remains illegal) and progressive (divorce by agreement is an administrative act). If therefore, the twenty-first century is indeed to be a time of Chinese global dominance, such investigations are pertinent to questions of global gender equality, as well as to cross-cultural social justice discourse in general.