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Concubines in court

Tran, Lisa. Concubines in court : marriage and monogamy in twentieth-century China. Lanham : Rowman & Littlefield, 2015. VIII-235 p. ISBN : 978-1-442-24589-1

1442245891This groundbreaking book analyzes marriage and family reform in twentieth-century China. Lisa Tran’s examination of changes in the perception of concubinage explores the subtle, yet very meaningful, shifts in the construction of monogamy in contemporary China. Equally important is her use of court cases to assess how these shifts affected legal and social practice. Tran argues that this dramatic story has often been overlooked, leading to the mistaken conclusion that concubinage remained largely unchanged or quietly disappeared in “modern” China. Customarily viewed as a minor wife because her “husband” was already married, a concubine found her legal status in question under a political order that came to be based on the principles of monogamy and equality. Yet although the custom of concubinage came under attack in the early twentieth century, the image of the concubine stirred public sympathy. How did lawmakers attack the practice without jeopardizing the interests of concubines? Conversely, how did jurists protect the interests of women without appearing to sanction concubinage? How law and society negotiated these conflicting interests dramatically altered existing views of monogamy and marriage and restructured gender and family relations.

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OpenEdition vous propose de citer ce billet de la manière suivante :
Monique Abud (8 août 2015). Concubines in court. Carnets du Centre Chine (CNRS/EHESS). Consulté le 10 décembre 2025 à l’adresse https://doi.org/10.58079/mf7l


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