In this article, the authors report on a study of the cultural transmission of uxorilocal marriage in Lueyang, China. They find that uxorilocal marriage has been commonly accepted and practiced in Lueyang since the beginning of this century, and uxorilocal marriage has been both a contingent and an institutional option for farmers with both preservative and practical purposes. Causes underlying contingent uxorilocal marriage are mostly demographic, and causes underlying institutional uxorilocal marriage are mostly economic, but a weak patriarchal family system, lack of dominant family clans in villages, and relaxed village regulation of uxorilocal marriage in Lueyang also play decisive roles. The occurrence of uxorilocal marriage is transmitted both from parents to children and from nonparental members of communities to couples. Rural economic reform since 1978 has had important influences on the transmission effects of uxorilocal marriage.

本文应用湖北省松滋县的调查数据，对婚姻形式和与父母共居时间的关系进行了研究。结果表明，在控制了其他重要的影响因素后，夫妻的婚姻形式对婚后保持与父母共居关系的时间有显著的影响。嫁娶婚姻夫妻，制度变化型和应时变化型“招赘”婚姻夫妻在婚后与父母共居时间上呈现递增的关系，婚后5年内是最可能改变与父母共居关系的时期。本文最后讨论了出现这种现象的原因及其社会意义。

Using data from a survey in Songzi County of Hubei Province, this article analyzes the relationship between children's gender and marriage form and their provision of old-age support to their noncoresiding parents in rural China. The results show that children's gender and marriage form have significant influence on their likelihood of giving financial and housework support to their parents, but no significant influence on the amount of financial support or their likelihood of supporting their parents with agricultural labor in peak agricultural seasons. Thus, the authors find that in Songzi, where both virilocal and uxorilocal marriages have been historically accepted and commonly practiced, sons and daughters play basically the same role in providing old-age support for their noncoresiding parents, as do virilocal and uxorilocal couples. The article discusses how these findings relate to current and future problems of old-age security and son preference in rural China.

Using data from a survey in Songzi county of Hubei province, this paper studies the influence of children's marriage form and individual factors on the division from their natal parents after marriage in rural China. The results reveal that among children with a brother, sons in virilocal marriages are more likely to undertake family division and it will occur earlier than for daughters in uxorilocal marriages. However, among children without a brother, behaviours in family division are not significantly different between sons and daughters. The majority of family division occurs in the first five years after marriage for sons and is distributed more or less equally over the first five years after marriage for daughters. Some children's individual factors including number of siblings also affect their likelihood of family division. Demographic, socioeconomic and cultural causes underlying this phenomenon as well as its social implications are also discussed.

Using data from a survey of deaths of children less than 5 years old conducted in 1997 in a county in Shaanxi Province, China, this paper examines gender differences in child survival in contemporary rural China. First, excess female child mortality in the county in 1994-96 is described, followed by an analysis of the mechanisms whereby the excess mortality takes place, and the underlying social, economic and cultural factors behind it. Excess female child mortality in this county is probably caused primarily by discrimination against girls in curative health care rather than in preventive health care or food and nutrition. Although discrimination occurs in all kinds of families and communities, discrimination itself is highly selective, and is primarily against girls with some specific characteristics. It is argued that the excess mortality of girls is caused fundamentally by the strong son preference in traditional Chinese culture, but exacerbated by the government-guided family planning programme and regulations. This suggests that it is crucial to raise the status of girls within the family and community so as to mitigate the pressures to discriminate against girls in China’s low fertility regime. Finally, the possible policy options to improve female child survival in contemporary rural China are discussed.

中国历史上一直存在嫁娶和招赘两种婚姻形式。由于各种社会、经济、文化和人口因素的影响，在农村中嫁娶式婚姻占绝对主导地位，而招赘式婚姻则非常少见。本文利用陕西省略阳县和三原县的调查数据，对于应时性和制度性两种类型的招赘式婚姻的影响因素进行了比较研究。

A strictly maintained patrilineal family system makes virilocal marriage almost universal and uxorilocal marriage rare in the history of rural China. Uxorilocal marriage can be divided into two types that may be termed, respectively, contingent and institutional. The former preserves family lineages in families without a son and occurs when uxorilocal marriage is uncommon. The latter serves practical economic purposes in families with sons and occurs when uxorilocal marriage is relatively prevalent. Using data from a survey in two counties of Shaanxi-Lueyang, where both kinds of uxorilocal marriage are prevalent, and Sanyuan, where uxorilocal marriage is rare and usually contingent-this paper employs logistic regression models in a quantitative comparative study of determinants of uxorilocal marriage in rural China. We show that the purposes and prevalence of the two types of uxorilocal marriage differ and that their determinants are also different in the two counties. In Sanyuan, the determinants are only a couple's sibling composition, membership in a large family clan, and educational level. In Lueyang, in addition to those determinants in Sanyuan, important contributions to the type of uxorilocal marriage include a couple's parental marriage type, age at marriage, adoption status, marriage arrangement, and their attitudes toward uxorilocal marriage. The results indicate the potential importance of encouraging uxorilocal marriage in rural areas as a means of mitigating demographic and social problems related to son preference, such as high sex ratio at birth and lack of old-age security, which are projected for China's future.