How has migration changed the Chinese family? Drawing on the life stories of 192 migrant men in southern China, this book examines the effect of mass rural-to-urban migration on family and gender relationships with a specific focus on changes in men and masculinities. Our findings show that migration has considerably transformed the relationships between migrant men and their lovers, spouses, children, and parents. Young and single migrant men are thrust into the tension between the persistent influence of rural parents in their grown children’s marriage decisions and the increasing cultural l ... More

How has migration changed the Chinese family? Drawing on the life stories of 192 migrant men in southern China, this book examines the effect of mass rural-to-urban migration on family and gender relationships with a specific focus on changes in men and masculinities. Our findings show that migration has considerably transformed the relationships between migrant men and their lovers, spouses, children, and parents. Young and single migrant men are thrust into the tension between the persistent influence of rural parents in their grown children’s marriage decisions and the increasing cultural legitimacy for individuals in urban centers to pursue love, romance, and sexual autonomy. Married migrant men have found it increasingly difficult to maintain the traditional dominance and privilege of the husband in the realms of marital decision making and the domestic division of labor. Migrant men with children find it hard to handle the emotional distance between themselves and the children they left behind. Migrant men also need to renegotiate their traditional obligation as filial sons from afar. If women bargain with patriarchy, the migrant men in our study make masculine compromises: they strive to preserve the gender boundary and their symbolic dominance within the family by making concessions on marital power and domestic division of labor and by redefining filial piety and fatherhood. The concept of masculine compromise captures the agency and strategies of men in negotiating their changing roles and gender identity in the family, and it provides a feminist framework to analyze uneven changes in gender practices and identity.