1st Edition
Masculinity, Marriage, and Rural Men in Urban China Modest Expectations
1. Introduction 2. The City of Opportunity 3. Consuming Singlehood 4. Lone Chopsticks 5. Rural Masculinities Reimagined 6. Love and Compatibility 7. Desperate and Dateless 8. Fear and Distrust 9. Waiting for yuanfen 10. Conclusion: In pursuit of guo rizi
Biography
Sarah Gosper is the Deputy Director of the Global Immersion Guarantee Program at Monash University, Australia, and a General Councillor for the ASAA Women’s Forum. Her research interests include China, gender, international development and global education.
“A compelling narrative on the crisis of unmarried rural men in urban China and a critical theorization of ‘guo rizi’ in understanding their complex negotiations between socio-economic positionality and socio-cultural expectations.”
Xiaodong Lin, University of Warwick
“Gosper’s excellent monograph offers a rich exploration of the lived experiences of rural bachelors in Xian city, China. Her book is innovative and thought provoking in its use of masculinity as a lens onto wider process of class reproduction and mobility, and its theoretical engagement with the emic terms that these men use to interpret their circumstances and strategies.”
Rachel Murphy, Professor of Chinese Development and Society, University of Oxford
