Symbolic Interaction Understanding Sheng Nu ("Leftover Women"):the Phenomenon of Late Marriage among Chinese Professional Women Sandy To University of Hong Kong In the past few decades,there has been a rise in the number of sin- gle,unmarried Chinese professional women,which is known as the sheng nu or"leftover women"phenomenon.Through an interaction- ist grounded theory method,this study has located the interactional constraints faced by 50 single Chinese professional women that were issued by their male romantic partners and parents,respectively."Dis- criminatory"and "controlling"gendered constraints issued by the women's male suitors and partners reflected the persistence of the Chinese patriarchal structure,and this was found to be the leading cause of the women being "leftover"in the marriage market.Parents' traditional views continued to exert strong influences on the women's marital choices,but this was seen to conflict with their more "modern" views toward advocating and supporting the women's strong economic achievements.The four different types of Chinese professional women that were constructed based on their different partner choice strategies not only gave rise to an in-depth and nuanced understanding of the sheng nu phenomenon in China,but could also be generalized toward understanding the marital choices of single professional women in other patriarchal societies who faced similar dilemmas in reconciling interactional constraints imposed by men and parents alike. Video Abstract. Keywords:Chinese professional women,sheng nu("leftover women"), late marriage,interactionist grounded theory method,patriarchy,part- ner choice constraints and strategies,male superior norms,traditional gender roles,nontraditional relationship forms,parental influences, matchmaking,individualization Increasing numbers of single,unmarried Chinese women in affluent Chinese cities such as Shanghai has given rise to the phenomenon of sheng nu or"leftover women." While this phenomenon of career women marrying later is also found in affluent Direct all correspondence to Sandy To,Department of Sociology,Room 928,9/F,The Jockey Club Tower,Centennial Campus,The University of Hong Kong,Pokfulam Road,Hong Kong;e-mail: sandyscto@hku.hk Symbolic Interaction,Vol.36,Issue 1,pp.1-20,ISSN:0195-6086 print/1533-8665 online. 2013 Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction.All rights reserved. DO:10.1002/SYMB.46
Understanding Sheng Nu (‘‘Leftover Women’’): the Phenomenon of Late Marriage among Chinese Professional Women Sandy To University of Hong Kong In the past few decades, there has been a rise in the number of single, unmarried Chinese professional women, which is known as the sheng nu or ‘‘leftover women’’ phenomenon. Through an interactionist grounded theory method, this study has located the interactional constraints faced by 50 single Chinese professional women that were issued by their male romantic partners and parents, respectively. ‘‘Discriminatory’’ and ‘‘controlling’’ gendered constraints issued by the women’s male suitors and partners reflected the persistence of the Chinese patriarchal structure, and this was found to be the leading cause of the women being ‘‘leftover’’ in the marriage market. Parents’ traditional views continued to exert strong influences on the women’s marital choices, but this was seen to conflict with their more ‘‘modern’’ views toward advocating and supporting the women’s strong economic achievements. The four different types of Chinese professional women that were constructed based on their different partner choice strategies not only gave rise to an in-depth and nuanced understanding of the sheng nu phenomenon in China, but could also be generalized toward understanding the marital choices of single professional women in other patriarchal societies who faced similar dilemmas in reconciling interactional constraints imposed by men and parents alike. Video Abstract. Keywords: Chinese professional women, sheng nu (‘‘leftover women’’), late marriage, interactionist grounded theory method, patriarchy, partner choice constraints and strategies, male superior norms, traditional gender roles, nontraditional relationship forms, parental influences, matchmaking, individualization Increasing numbers of single, unmarried Chinese women in affluent Chinese cities such as Shanghai has given rise to the phenomenon ofsheng nu or ‘‘leftover women.’’ While this phenomenon of career women marrying later is also found in affluent Direct all correspondence to Sandy To, Department of Sociology, Room 928, 9/F, The Jockey Club Tower, Centennial Campus, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong; e-mail: sandyscto@hku.hk Symbolic Interaction, Vol. 36, Issue 1, pp. 1–20, ISSN: 0195-6086 print/1533-8665 online. © 2013 Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction. All rights reserved. DOI: 10.1002/SYMB.46
2 Symbolic Interaction Volume 36,Number 1,2013 Western societies,there appear to be a wider variety of interpretations which encompass both the positive and the negative.The more positive interpretations of Western women's late marriage usually take reference either explicitly or implicitly from"individualization,"which is a sociological concept developed by Western European sociologists Anthony Giddens (1992)and Ulrich Beck and Elisabeth Beck-Gernsheim (2002)to explicate and theorize highly educated professional women's proactive assertion of individual agency in intimate life,which gives rise to a transformation of the intimate landscape of late modern societies,for instance, later marriages for both sexes and more instances of nontraditional relationship forms that are outside the traditional marriage model.According to Giddens(1992) and Beck and Beck-Gernsheim(2002),this signifies an empowerment of women as they now have more freedom to make more informed relationship choices,which may or may not include marriage;in other words,women who are highly educated or have high professional status but are not married are not stigmatized,but are perceived as independent and liberated. On the other hand,in the Mainland Chinese media,highly educated career women of marriageable age who are unmarried have been coined derogatorily as sheng nu or"leftover women.'The Chinese Ministry of Education (2007)attributes the unmarried status of these women to their own"overly high expectations for marriage partners,"implying that they are the ones to blame for their own competence and independence.This is extremely telling of the patriarchal culture of Chinese society, which still advocates the "male-as-superior"'pattern of marriage partner choice, rendering competent women to be discriminated against in the marriage market. Moreover,the patriarchal culture also lacks any positive concepts for describing independent career women who do not fit into traditional domestic roles.In other words,marriage is still a"must"'for Chinese women,and as a result,there has been a proliferation of nation-wide matchmaking reality shows and matchmaking events across public parks in almost every mainland Chinese city where parents advertise their daughters'physical and economic attributes on billboards in the hopes of getting them married off as soon as possible (Yang 2011). This contrast between the scorned sheng nu or"leftover women"in Mainland China and the"individualized"or liberated women found in the Western world and promoted in Giddens'and Becks'sociological theory is an interesting one that is worth investigating.Furthermore,there has been a paucity of academic studies that seriously investigate the phenomenon of urban Chinese professional women's late marriage by an in-depth and exhaustive exploration of the women's own perspectives regarding their marital situation,for instance,do they want to get married or stay single?Do they encounter any constraints in their quest for marriage?What types of partners are they looking for?As for the extremely few qualitative studies that do broach the topic of single Chinese managerial and professional women's relationship landscapes and marital choices (Korabik 1993;Ng and Ng 2009),they are found to offer only descriptive accounts and not an overall theory that could provide a more conceptually sophisticated understanding of single,professional women's marital
2 Symbolic Interaction Volume 36, Number 1, 2013 Western societies, there appear to be a wider variety of interpretations which encompass both the positive and the negative. The more positive interpretations of Western women’s late marriage usually take reference either explicitly or implicitly from ‘‘individualization,’’ which is a sociological concept developed by Western European sociologists Anthony Giddens (1992) and Ulrich Beck and Elisabeth Beck-Gernsheim (2002) to explicate and theorize highly educated professional women’s proactive assertion of individual agency in intimate life, which gives rise to a transformation of the intimate landscape of late modern societies, for instance, later marriages for both sexes and more instances of nontraditional relationship forms that are outside the traditional marriage model. According to Giddens (1992) and Beck and Beck-Gernsheim (2002), this signifies an empowerment of women as they now have more freedom to make more informed relationship choices, which may or may not include marriage; in other words, women who are highly educated or have high professional status but are not married are not stigmatized, but are perceived as independent and liberated. On the other hand, in the Mainland Chinese media, highly educated career women of marriageable age who are unmarried have been coined derogatorily as sheng nu or ‘‘leftover women.’’ The Chinese Ministry of Education (2007) attributes the unmarried status of these women to their own ‘‘overly high expectations for marriage partners,’’ implying that they are the ones to blame for their own competence and independence. This is extremely telling of the patriarchal culture of Chinese society, which still advocates the ‘‘male-as-superior’’ pattern of marriage partner choice, rendering competent women to be discriminated against in the marriage market. Moreover, the patriarchal culture also lacks any positive concepts for describing independent career women who do not fit into traditional domestic roles. In other words, marriage is still a ‘‘must’’ for Chinese women, and as a result, there has been a proliferation of nation-wide matchmaking reality shows and matchmaking events across public parks in almost every mainland Chinese city where parents advertise their daughters’ physical and economic attributes on billboards in the hopes of getting them married off as soon as possible (Yang 2011). This contrast between the scorned sheng nu or ‘‘leftover women’’ in Mainland China and the ‘‘individualized’’ or liberated women found in the Western world and promoted in Giddens’ and Becks’ sociological theory is an interesting one that is worth investigating. Furthermore, there has been a paucity of academic studies that seriously investigate the phenomenon of urban Chinese professional women’s late marriage by an in-depth and exhaustive exploration of the women’s own perspectives regarding their marital situation, for instance, do they want to get married or stay single? Do they encounter any constraints in their quest for marriage? What types of partners are they looking for? As for the extremely few qualitative studies that do broach the topic of single Chinese managerial and professional women’s relationship landscapes and marital choices (Korabik 1993; Ng and Ng 2009), they are found to offer only descriptive accounts and not an overall theory that could provide a more conceptually sophisticated understanding of single, professional women’s marital
Understanding Sheng Nu ("Leftover Women') 3 situation.This is probably due to their small data sets (under 20 informants)which precludes comprehensive theoretical developments.The aim of my study which is based on interviews with 50 never-married Chinese professional women (a relatively large data set for qualitative studies)is therefore to provide an in-depth,theoretical understanding of the Chinese professional women's late marriage phenomenon.In order to serve my purpose of building a middle-range grounded theory of"Chinese professional women's marital decision making,"I have adopted Anselm Strauss and Juliet Corbin's grounded theory method(Strauss and Corbin 1990,1994;Corbin and Strauss 2008)which is underpinned by the interactionist epistemology Strauss and Corbin drew on one general model of action rooted in pragmatist and interactionist social theory to build a skeleton or "axis"for developing grounded theories.This "paradigm model"is used "to think systematically about data and to relate them in very complex ways"'(Strauss and Corbin 1990:99)and for determining the main purpose of theory construction:analysing and modelling action and interaction strategies of the actors.Thereby,special emphasis is laid on the intentions and goals of the actors and on the process character of human action and interaction. (Kelle 2005) In this particular study,the interactions captured are those between the Chinese professional women informants and their male romantic partners and parents, respectively.Parents and male romantic partners are found to be the key players who give rise to the conditions or constraints that the informants face when making their marital choices,and in response,they adopt various actions or strategies of marriage partner choice.They are then categorized into different "types"in accordance with their partner choice strategies,and this original typology of the 50 women informants would constitute this study's"grounded theory of Chinese professional women's marriage partner choice,"which can then be generalized toward understanding the actions and conditions faced by single professional women in other patriarchal societies. Given that grounded theory is an "interplay between (both)micro and macro conditions"(Corbin and Strauss 2008:91),the investigation of microsociological human actions and interactions in the Chinese women's partner choice process would also give rise to an elucidation of the wider structural factors that underlie their microinteractional constraints. The analysis of a setting must not be restricted to the conditions that bear immediately on the phenomenon of central interest.Broader conditions affecting the phenomenon may include economic conditions,cultural values,political trends,social movements,and so on. (Strauss and Corbin 1990:11). In this sense,the grounded theory of Chinese professional women's marital decision making will also give rise to the understanding of the wider patriarchal structure of modern Chinese society.The aim of this study is hence threefold,that is
Understanding Sheng Nu (‘‘Leftover Women’’) 3 situation. This is probably due to their small data sets (under 20 informants) which precludes comprehensive theoretical developments. The aim of my study which is based on interviews with 50 never-married Chinese professional women (a relatively large data set for qualitative studies) is therefore to provide an in-depth, theoretical understanding of the Chinese professional women’s late marriage phenomenon. In order to serve my purpose of building a middle-range grounded theory of ‘‘Chinese professional women’s marital decision making,’’ I have adopted Anselm Strauss and Juliet Corbin’s grounded theory method (Strauss and Corbin 1990, 1994; Corbin and Strauss 2008) which is underpinned by the interactionist epistemology. Strauss and Corbin drew on one general model of action rooted in pragmatist and interactionist social theory to build a skeleton or ‘‘axis’’ for developing grounded theories. This ‘‘paradigm model’’ is used ‘‘to think systematically about data and to relate them in very complex ways’’ (Strauss and Corbin 1990:99) and for determining the main purpose of theory construction: analysing and modelling action and interaction strategies of the actors. Thereby, special emphasis is laid on the intentions and goals of the actors and on the process character of human action and interaction. (Kelle 2005) In this particular study, the interactions captured are those between the Chinese professional women informants and their male romantic partners and parents, respectively. Parents and male romantic partners are found to be the key players who give rise to the conditions or constraints that the informants face when making their marital choices, and in response, they adopt various actions or strategies of marriage partner choice. They are then categorized into different ‘‘types’’ in accordance with their partner choice strategies, and this original typology of the 50 women informants would constitute this study’s ‘‘grounded theory of Chinese professional women’s marriage partner choice,’’ which can then be generalized toward understanding the actions and conditions faced by single professional women in other patriarchal societies. Given that grounded theory is an ‘‘interplay between (both) micro and macro conditions’’ (Corbin and Strauss 2008:91), the investigation of microsociological human actions and interactions in the Chinese women’s partner choice process would also give rise to an elucidation of the wider structural factors that underlie their microinteractional constraints. The analysis of a setting must not be restricted to the conditions that bear immediately on the phenomenon of central interest. Broader conditions affecting the phenomenon may include economic conditions, cultural values, political trends, social movements, and so on. (Strauss and Corbin 1990:11). In this sense, the grounded theory of Chinese professional women’s marital decision making will also give rise to the understanding of the wider patriarchal structure of modern Chinese society. The aim of this study is hence threefold, that is
Symbolic Interaction Volume 36,Number 1,2013 to devise an original typological grounded theory on Chinese professional women's marriage partner choice based on a study of 50 informants;to derive a more general understanding of single,professional women's marital situation in China and in other patriarchal societies;and finally,to gain more insight into the patriarchal structure of contemporary post-reform Chinese society.Before delving into the empirical outcomes,the first part of this article will elaborate extensively on the data sources of this study and the key procedures of the grounded theory method that were applied,including the procedures of concept and grounded theory development. Part Two will be an in-depth discussion of the key concepts and the four different types,and empirical examples will be given. PART ONE-DATA SOURCES,METHODOLOGICAL PROCEDURES, AND GROUNDED THEORY DEVELOPMENT My study on Chinese professional women's marital choices was conducted from 2008 to 2012 to fulfil the requirements of my doctoral thesis.In the period of December 2008 to January 2011,I carried out semistructured in-depth interviews in Shanghai in four separate stages to gather a total of 50 informants. Shanghai as the Site of Investigation Shanghai was the chosen site of investigation as it was known for being the most cosmopolitan commercial city in China where a large number of advanced service industry professionals from all over Mainland China and the Greater China region sought employment in global firms across the city (Shanghai Municipal Statistics Bureau 2011).As I was interested in finding out the perspectives of Chinese women from a large variety of Chinese cities and regions,including those of the Greater China regions such as Hong Kong and Taiwan,I chose Shanghai as it had the most cosmopolitan-foreign as well as Chinese-population (Shanghai Municipal Statistics Bureau 2011).At the end of my sampling period,I was able to gather Chinese women informants from a wide range of Chinese cities,namely Shanghai,Beijing,Nanjing,Anhui,Harbin,Shenyang,Wuxi,Zhejiang,Jiangsu, Henan,Chongqing,Guangzhou,Hong Kong,and Taiwan.The majority of the women were Shanghai locals,but there were found to be no perceptible differences in the "openness"of their relationship and marital views in comparison with those from other "less modern'or more traditional cities such as Shenyang or Harbin. Moreover,compared to the women from Hong Kong-a postcolonial region that had been under British rule for over a century and half-the women from Shanghai were also not generally seen to be more traditional or conservative than their Westernized Hong Kong counterparts when it came to making relationship choices. In the same vein,the Hong Kong parents and Hong Kong men that the Hong Kong informants encountered did not seem to exemplify less traditional views than the Mainland Chinese parents and Mainland Chinese men that the Mainland Chinese
4 Symbolic Interaction Volume 36, Number 1, 2013 to devise an original typological grounded theory on Chinese professional women’s marriage partner choice based on a study of 50 informants; to derive a more general understanding of single, professional women’s marital situation in China and in other patriarchal societies; and finally, to gain more insight into the patriarchal structure of contemporary post-reform Chinese society. Before delving into the empirical outcomes, the first part of this article will elaborate extensively on the data sources of this study and the key procedures of the grounded theory method that were applied, including the procedures of concept and grounded theory development. Part Two will be an in-depth discussion of the key concepts and the four different types, and empirical examples will be given. PART ONE—DATA SOURCES, METHODOLOGICAL PROCEDURES, AND GROUNDED THEORY DEVELOPMENT My study on Chinese professional women’s marital choices was conducted from 2008 to 2012 to fulfil the requirements of my doctoral thesis. In the period of December 2008 to January 2011, I carried out semistructured in-depth interviews in Shanghai in four separate stages to gather a total of 50 informants. Shanghai as the Site of Investigation Shanghai was the chosen site of investigation as it was known for being the most cosmopolitan commercial city in China where a large number of advanced service industry professionals from all over Mainland China and the Greater China region sought employment in global firms across the city (Shanghai Municipal Statistics Bureau 2011). As I was interested in finding out the perspectives of Chinese women from a large variety of Chinese cities and regions, including those of the Greater China regions such as Hong Kong and Taiwan, I chose Shanghai as it had the most cosmopolitan— foreign as well as Chinese—population (Shanghai Municipal Statistics Bureau 2011). At the end of my sampling period, I was able to gather Chinese women informants from a wide range of Chinese cities, namely Shanghai, Beijing, Nanjing, Anhui, Harbin, Shenyang, Wuxi, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Henan, Chongqing, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. The majority of the women were Shanghai locals, but there were found to be no perceptible differences in the ‘‘openness’’ of their relationship and marital views in comparison with those from other ‘‘less modern’’ or more traditional cities such as Shenyang or Harbin. Moreover, compared to the women from Hong Kong—a postcolonial region that had been under British rule for over a century and half— the women from Shanghai were also not generally seen to be more traditional or conservative than their Westernized Hong Kong counterparts when it came to making relationship choices. In the same vein, the Hong Kong parents and Hong Kong men that the Hong Kong informants encountered did not seem to exemplify less traditional views than the Mainland Chinese parents and Mainland Chinese men that the Mainland Chinese
Understanding Sheng Nu("Leftover Women') 5 informants encountered,and thus,the interactional constraints that were faced by the Hong Kong and Mainland Chinese informants seemed to be fairly regular across regions.Perhaps overseas educational or work experience might be a better determinant of the women's"openness"'with regard to making relationship choices more than the region from which they were from.But then again,almost half of the informants in this study had studied or worked overseas for a number of years, which was a fairly common practice in Mainland China nowadays given the relative affluence of many urban middle class households,increased familial resources for only children of the late 70s to mid-80s cohort (the age group of the informants), and more overseas job placements issued by global firms.Generally speaking,those who had overseas experiences did not generally present much more open views than those who did not,except for one informant who spent considerably more time living with family in the US than the rest of the informants-who normally did not spend more than the duration of an undergraduate or postgraduate degree of several years.This informant who spent a prolonged period studying and living overseas (around ten years)was indeed an "Innovator"type-that is,one who advocated nontraditional relationship forms over marriage.These different types will be elaborated in detail in Part Two. Sources of the Data and the Interviewing Schedule Upon administering a total of four stages of sampling,coding,and data analyses, 50 never-married,tertiary-educated Chinese professional and managerial women in the age range of 26-34 and working in global firms in the industries of law, finance,marketing,advertising,information technology,medicine,retail,academia, and architecture were collected.These informants were sourced from my own personal contacts in Shanghai,which included family friends and former schoolmates, and upon snowballing from these contacts,I was able to gather a host of other informants from a diverse range of networks,such as the Overseas Chinese Network (OCN)which was a professional networking group for expatriate professionals of ethnic Chinese descent,the Cambridge and Oxford Society of Shanghai (CamOx), and a private finance professionals'networking group.There were several major gatekeepers who provided many of the informant sources,such as the Shanghai Head of a global consumer products company,a vice president of a global hospitality company,a committee member of the CamOx Society,a general manager of a family- run retail business,and a technology analyst from a global beverage company.On the whole,not more than three informants were provided by one gatekeeper in keeping with the need to ensure the diversity of the sample. The informants were interviewed in their offices,homes,coffee shops,and restaurants,and their interviews were taped using an MP3 recorder and lasted around 50 minutes each.The interview schedule was semistructured and was composed of key guiding questions that stemmed from a comprehensive literature review of quantitative and qualitative studies on the effects of women's economic status
Understanding Sheng Nu (‘‘Leftover Women’’) 5 informants encountered, and thus, the interactional constraints that were faced by the Hong Kong and Mainland Chinese informants seemed to be fairly regular across regions. Perhaps overseas educational or work experience might be a better determinant of the women’s ‘‘openness’’ with regard to making relationship choices more than the region from which they were from. But then again, almost half of the informants in this study had studied or worked overseas for a number of years, which was a fairly common practice in Mainland China nowadays given the relative affluence of many urban middle class households, increased familial resources for only children of the late 70s to mid-80s cohort (the age group of the informants), and more overseas job placements issued by global firms. Generally speaking, those who had overseas experiences did not generally present much more open views than those who did not, except for one informant who spent considerably more time living with family in the US than the rest of the informants—who normally did not spend more than the duration of an undergraduate or postgraduate degree of several years. This informant who spent a prolonged period studying and living overseas (around ten years) was indeed an ‘‘Innovator’’ type— that is, one who advocated nontraditional relationship forms over marriage. These different types will be elaborated in detail in Part Two. Sources of the Data and the Interviewing Schedule Upon administering a total of four stages of sampling, coding, and data analyses, 50 never-married, tertiary-educated Chinese professional and managerial women in the age range of 26–34 and working in global firms in the industries of law, finance, marketing, advertising, information technology, medicine, retail, academia, and architecture were collected. These informants were sourced from my own personal contacts in Shanghai, which included family friends and former schoolmates, and upon snowballing from these contacts, I was able to gather a host of other informants from a diverse range of networks, such as the Overseas Chinese Network (OCN) which was a professional networking group for expatriate professionals of ethnic Chinese descent, the Cambridge and Oxford Society of Shanghai (CamOx), and a private finance professionals’ networking group. There were several major gatekeepers who provided many of the informant sources, such as the Shanghai Head of a global consumer products company, a vice president of a global hospitality company, a committee member of the CamOx Society, a general manager of a familyrun retail business, and a technology analyst from a global beverage company. On the whole, not more than three informants were provided by one gatekeeper in keeping with the need to ensure the diversity of the sample. The informants were interviewed in their offices, homes, coffee shops, and restaurants, and their interviews were taped using an MP3 recorder and lasted around 50 minutes each. The interview schedule was semistructured and was composed of key guiding questions that stemmed from a comprehensive literature review of quantitative and qualitative studies on the effects of women’s economic status