Marriage and Aspirations in Contemporary Shanghai

Yuqin Huang

In contrast to the heated discussion about 30-million of possible unmarriageable bachelors mainly from rural areas, in recent years, the anxieties about “leftover women” (Shengnu) in first-tier Chinese cities who have difficulties to find a marriage partner after certain age becomes prominent. Through volunteering in a non-profit marriage agency in Shanghai, in this project, I would like to explore how “marriage” has become a political power again; how the issue of “Shengnu” has been perceived and interpreted by different parties involved in the running of the association, mainly including the agency founder, the media and the local government officials as the representative of the state, the volunteers and the courtship/marriage partner pursuers; and the elements that could shape parts of the (marriage) aspirations of them. This project is particularly concerned about how contemporary socio-economic transformations, especially skyrocketing housing prices and living expenditures, have impacted and shaped people’s aspirations in relation to courtship and marriage in contemporary Shanghai, and how these aspirations differ across gender, age and region of origin. As a result, the complex entanglement between courtship/marriage, urban aspirations, media, the state and civil society in contemporary Shanghai is considered.