Sexuality and Uxorilocal Marriage in Rural North China: Impacts of the One-Child-One-Family Policy on Gender and Kinship

Abstract

In rural north China, a cultural taboo known as Bufafang prohibits a woman from having sexual intercourse inside her natal home. This article offers an interpretation of Bufafang in terms of its symbolic significance within Chinese kinship and marriage forms with particular reference to uxorilocal marriages. The article then examines the likely impact of the Chinese one-child-one-family policy on Bufafang and, in the wider cultural context, on kinship, marriage, and gender in China. This article is based on fieldwork in Baifu, a rural village in the northern outskirts of Beijing, from August 2000 to February 2001.