COURTSHIP. LOVE AND PREMARITAL SEX IN A NORTH CHINA VILLAGE Yunxiang Yan Because the union of a young couple affects the institution of the family, establishes an alliance between two kin groups and can have repercussions on social standing any traditional societies parents control their children's marriage choices, and romantic love normally plays only an indirect role, if at all.' In the modem age, as is well known, there has been a worldwide shift away from arranged marriages. New pattems of courtship based on free choice by young couples have emerged as a consequence of social and economic changes that encompass formal education, urbanization, migration, non-family employment, and individual access to wage incomes. The triumph of free-choice marriages is a global development, and China is no exception The paper is based on fieldwork supported by the National Science Foundation, the Wenner- Gren Foundation, and the International and Overseas Studies Program at UCLA. I owe special thanks to Anita Chan, Jonathan Unger and three anonymous reviewers for their an earlier draft See, e. g, William J. Goode, The Theoretical Importance of Love", American Sociological brary,1959),pp.38-47. william J. Goode, World Revolution and Family Patterns(New York: The Free Press 1963); Michael Mitterauer and Reinhard Sieder, The Europ Family: Patriarchy to Partnership from the Middle Ages to the Present(Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1982). Chs 5 and ntoine Prost, "Public and Private Spheres in France", in Antonie Prost and Gerard Vincent(eds), A History of Private Life, Vol. 5(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1991),pp. 1-143: Paul Rosenblatt and Paul Cozby, Courtship Patterns Associated wit Freedom of Choice of Spouse, Journal of Marriage and the family, Vol. 34(1972), pp 689-95; and Arland Thornton and Hui-Sheng Lin(eds), Social Change and the family in Taiwan( Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994). Deborah Davis and Stevan Harrell, " Introduction: The Impact of Post-Mao Reforms on Family Life", in Deborah Da Chinese families in the Post-Mao berkeley: University of California Also see the essays in Davis and also william Parish and Mart Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978) THE CHINA JOURNAL. NO, 48. JULY 2002COURTSHIP, LOVE AND PREMARITAL SEX IN A NORTH CHINA VILLAGE* Yunxiang Yan Because the union of a young couple affects the institution of the family, establishes an alliance between two kin groups and can have repercussions on social standing, in many traditional societies parents control their children's marriage choices, and romantic love normally plays only an indirect role, if at all.' In the modem age, as is well known, there has been a worldwide shift away from arranged marriages. New patterns of courtship based on free choice by young couples have emerged as a consequence of social and economic changes that encompass formal education, urbanization, migration, non-family employment, and individual access to wage incomes. The triumph of free-choice marriages is a global development,2 and China is no exception.3 The paper is based on fieldwork supported by the National Science Foundation, the Wenner￾Gren Foundation, and the International and Overseas Studies Program at UCLA. I owe special thanks to Anita Chan, Jonathan Unger and three anonymous reviewers for their insightful and valuable comments on an earlier draft. See, e.g., William J. Goode, "The Theoretical Importance of Love", American Sociological Review, Vol. 24, No. 1 (February, 1959), pp. 38-47. 2 William J. Goode, World Revolution and Family Patterns (New York: The Free Press, 1963); Michael Mitterauer and Reinhard Sieder, The European Family: Patriarchy to Partnership from the Middle Ages to the Present (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1982), Chs 5 and 6; Antoine Prost, "Public and Private Spheres in France", in Antonie Prost and Gerard Vincent (eds), A History of Private Life, Vol. 5 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1991), pp. 1-143; Paul Rosenblatt and Paul Cozby, "Courtship Patterns Associated with Freedom of Choice of Spouse", Journal of Marriage and the Family, Vol. 34 (1972), pp. 689-95; and Arland Thornton and Hui-Sheng Lin (eds), Social Change and the Family in Taiwan (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994). 3 Deborah Davis and Stevan Harrell, "Introduction: The Impact of Post-Mao Reforms on Family Life", in Deborah Davis and Stevan Harrell (eds), Chinese Families in the Post-Mao Era (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993), p. 5. Also see the essays in Davis and Harrell; also William Parish and Martin Whyte, Village and Family in Contemporary China (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978). THE CHINA JOURNAL, NO. 48, JULY 2002