Making Love “Legible” in China: Politics and Society during the Enforcement of Civil Marriage Registration,1950-66

Abstract

This article looks at marriage registration as a window into state building and state-family relations in Maoist China. It focuses on the interaction between officials and citizens as they tried to make sense of the new state's unprecedented demand that people register their marriages prior to their consummation. Marriage registration was expected to make Chinese society more “legible” to the state, as well as contribute to a “healthier” nation. While much of the literature of Maoist China would anticipate state success, archival evidence points to widespread evasion and resistance, as well as accommodation, to the state's effort to reshape family relations.