Davis 1i standing to plaintiffs challenging compensation payments on termination of cohabitation.6 One presumes that the drafts circulating on the internet addressed these issues because lower courts had been asked to rule on such agreements and judges in lower courts had ruled inconsistently.However,by remaining "silent"on all matters related to sexual intimacy,the final version of the third interpretation signaled that lower courts would not regulate sex- ual intimacy among consenting adults.Or,the silence could simply indicate that the SPC judges could not agree on how or when the court should act on issues of sexual fidelity.Regardless of the judges'motivations,the conse- quence of the silence was that lower courts remained free to interpret the law according to their own guidelines and that couples could continue to make and break agreements about sexual fidelity according to personal preferences and beyond the purview of the courts. Interpretations of the SPC reveal the priorities of the party-state elite.They establish the formal legal context in which marriages are officially recognized or dissolved;they cannot,however,capture changes in popular opinion or behavior.Moreover,because most people avoid taking family disputes to court,court documents cannot reveal changes in popular attitudes or shifts in typical behavior across the decades.To address these concerns one needs to go beyond discussion of legislation and judicial interpretations.In the next two sections,I introduce material from two alternative sources:census data and interviews with a cross-section of urban residents in Guangzhou and Shanghai. I first review census materials to summarize demographic change at the level of the population.I then turn to interviews where we explicitly asked respon- dents to compare the efficacy of loyalty agreements and prenuptial contracts as well as to contrast the conditions of marriages today to those of their par- ents.7 Neither set of data is definitive,but taken together,they bring us closer to understanding the lived experience of post-socialist marriages. Demographic Trajectory of Change In terms of behavioral shifts,longitudinal demographic measures reveal two seemingly contradictory trends.First,as one would expect,divorce rates have risen since passage of the 1980 Marriage Law.In 1980 divorce was a rare occurrence in the country as a whole and even in a city like Shanghai. By 2010,the national crude divorce rate(CDR)approached that of Taiwan and in Shanghai nearly converged with that of the United States(see Figure 2).8 Yet at the same time as more marriages dissolved,overall marriage rates in China rose.Moreover,when one compares China's crude marriage rate (CMR)to those in other countries in East Asia,Europe,and North America, China is the only one where CMR has recently risen (see Figure 3).9In Downloaded from mcx.sagepub.com at Yale University Library on June 12,2014Davis 11 standing to plaintiffs challenging compensation payments on termination of cohabitation.6 One presumes that the drafts circulating on the internet addressed these issues because lower courts had been asked to rule on such agreements and judges in lower courts had ruled inconsistently. However, by remaining “silent” on all matters related to sexual intimacy, the final version of the third interpretation signaled that lower courts would not regulate sex￾ual intimacy among consenting adults. Or, the silence could simply indicate that the SPC judges could not agree on how or when the court should act on issues of sexual fidelity. Regardless of the judges’ motivations, the conse￾quence of the silence was that lower courts remained free to interpret the law according to their own guidelines and that couples could continue to make and break agreements about sexual fidelity according to personal preferences and beyond the purview of the courts. Interpretations of the SPC reveal the priorities of the party-state elite. They establish the formal legal context in which marriages are officially recognized or dissolved; they cannot, however, capture changes in popular opinion or behavior. Moreover, because most people avoid taking family disputes to court, court documents cannot reveal changes in popular attitudes or shifts in typical behavior across the decades. To address these concerns one needs to go beyond discussion of legislation and judicial interpretations. In the next two sections, I introduce material from two alternative sources: census data and interviews with a cross-section of urban residents in Guangzhou and Shanghai. I first review census materials to summarize demographic change at the level of the population. I then turn to interviews where we explicitly asked respon￾dents to compare the efficacy of loyalty agreements and prenuptial contracts as well as to contrast the conditions of marriages today to those of their par￾ents.7 Neither set of data is definitive, but taken together, they bring us closer to understanding the lived experience of post-socialist marriages. Demographic Trajectory of Change In terms of behavioral shifts, longitudinal demographic measures reveal two seemingly contradictory trends. First, as one would expect, divorce rates have risen since passage of the 1980 Marriage Law. In 1980 divorce was a rare occurrence in the country as a whole and even in a city like Shanghai. By 2010, the national crude divorce rate (CDR) approached that of Taiwan and in Shanghai nearly converged with that of the United States (see Figure 2).8 Yet at the same time as more marriages dissolved, overall marriage rates in China rose. Moreover, when one compares China’s crude marriage rate (CMR) to those in other countries in East Asia, Europe, and North America, China is the only one where CMR has recently risen (see Figure 3).9 In Downloaded from mcx.sagepub.com at Yale University Library on June 12, 2014