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.

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.

本文利用陕西省略阳县的调查数据，表明招赘婚姻模式自本世纪以来在略阳县一直被接受和实行。略阳县招赘婚姻模式是一种具有保存性和实用性功能的制度化选择。导致招赘婚姻既有人口因素，也有经济因素，但略阳县松散的父系家族制度和村子对招赘婚姻的限制较少也起到了重要作用。文化传播模型和Logistic模型的分析结果说明，招赘婚姻模式是从父母向子女以及社区的非父母成员向夫妻传播的，而且父母传播在所研究的两个时期内变化很大。1978年后的农村经济改革对招赘婚姻模式的传播效应有非常重要的影响。

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.