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Tongyangxi (), also known as Shim-pua marriage in
Min Nan
Southern Min (), Minnan ( Mandarin pronunciation: ) or Banlam (), is a group of linguistically similar and historically related Sinitic languages that form a branch of Min Chinese spoken in Fujian (especially the Minnan region), most of Taiwan ...
dialects (; and in
phonetic Hokkien transcription using Chinese characters: 新婦仔), was a tradition of
arranged marriage
Arranged marriage is a type of marital union where the bride and groom are primarily selected by individuals other than the couple themselves, particularly by family members such as the parents. In some cultures a professional matchmaker may be us ...
dating back to pre-modern China, in which a family would adopt a pre-
adolescent daughter as a future bride for one of their pre-adolescent (usually
infant
An infant or baby is the very young offspring of human beings. ''Infant'' (from the Latin word ''infans'', meaning 'unable to speak' or 'speechless') is a formal or specialised synonym for the common term ''baby''. The terms may also be used to ...
) sons, and the children would be raised together.
A direct translation of the Taiwanese (Hokkien) word "sim-pu-a" is "little daughter-in-law", in which the characters "sim-pu" () mean daughter-in-law and the particle character "a" ( or ) indicates a
diminutive
A diminutive is a root word that has been modified to convey a slighter degree of its root meaning, either to convey the smallness of the object or quality named, or to convey a sense of intimacy or endearment. A (abbreviated ) is a word-formati ...
. The similarly used Mandarin Chinese term "tongyangxi" () means literally "child (童) raised (養) daughter-in-law (媳)" and is the term typically used as translation for the English term "child bride".
These child marriages were more common among the poor, where they served to guarantee a wife for a poor son. The families that gave their daughters up also benefited to the extent that they no longer had to provide for a daughter, someone who was bound to marry and leave the family one day. Such marriages were often unsuccessful, and they were outlawed in China in 1949. In Taiwan, compulsory education got these girls out of their homes and exposed them to the broader world, often leading to them leaving their adopted families. The practice ended there by the 1970s.
Social anthropology perspective
Within social anthropology research of Chinese marriage, shim-pua marriage is referred to as a "minor marriage" because the daughter-in-law joins her future husband's household when both are minors, in contrast to Chinese major marriage, in which the bride joins her husband's household on the day of the wedding. The shim-pua daughter was often adopted into a family who already had a son to whom she would be betrothed, though this was not always the case. Instead, some families adopted a shim-pua daughter prior to having a son, prompted by a traditional belief that adopting a shim-pua would enhance a wife's likelihood of bearing a son. Although the shim-pua daughter joins the household as a child, the marriage would only occur after both had reached
puberty
Puberty is the process of physical changes through which a child's body matures into an adult body capable of sexual reproduction. It is initiated by hormonal signals from the brain to the gonads: the ovaries in a girl, the testes in a boy. ...
. Depending upon the family's socioeconomic status and financial means, the wedding could range from a large banquet on par with a major marriage to a small family ceremony, or in the simplest cases "a bow to the ancestors and a slight change in the family's sleeping arrangements."
Shim-pua marriage occurred over a range of socioeconomic classes, but was particularly common among poor and rural families. Among the well to do, marrying a son in a major marriage was prestigious and a display of status, but also costly. In poorer and more rural communities, shim-pua minor marriage was inexpensive and helped to ensure that no matter how poor a family was, their sons would have wives when they reached marrying age, and thus a greater likelihood of producing descendants. In contrast, the high
bride price
Bride price, bride-dowry ( Mahr in Islam), bride-wealth, or bride token, is money, property, or other form of wealth paid by a groom or his family to the woman or the family of the woman he will be married to or is just about to marry. Bride dow ...
to acquire a bride for a son to wed in a major marriage could be prohibitive, sometimes as much as a year's income for the family. If the family could not afford such a bride for major marriage, this could result in a failure to produce descendants and the end of the family lineage. In contrast, the costs of adopting an infant daughter were low and the costs of raising her as a shim-pua often included only food and clothing. In poor communities, limited wealth or status motivated both the adoption of a shim-pua daughter into the family and the giving up of biological daughters as shim-pua to other families. For a family of limited means or social status, a biological daughter offered little surety; traditionally she would be married off into another family and would neither care for her parents in old age nor extend the family lineage. In contrast, a shim-pua daughter would remain in the household, caring for the parents through their old age, and would bear their descendants. For these reasons, adoption of an infant shim-pua daughter frequently coincided with giving up a biological infant daughter for adoption and then raising the shim-pua daughter in her place.
These marriages were often unsuccessful. This has been explained as a demonstration of the
Westermarck effect
The Westermarck effect, also known as reverse sexual imprinting, is a psychological hypothesis that people tend not to be attracted to peers with whom they lived like siblings before age six. This hypothesis was first proposed by Finnish anthr ...
.
End of the practice
In mainland China, the practice was outlawed by the
Communist Party of China
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Civil ...
in 1949.
In
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...
, several legal issues arose in the 1950s, when shim-pua daughters were registered as adopted daughters, or their male equivalent were registered as adopted sons. Because the couple were legally considered step-siblings, the Taiwanese common law forbade their marriage. Three judicial reviews were made by the
Judicial Yuan to allow their marriage.
[Republic of China Judicial Review No. 12, 32, and 58.] Shim-pua marriage fell out of practice by the 1970s due to increased wealth resulting from Taiwan's economic success, making such arrangements unnecessary. One factor that accelerated the demise of shim-pua marriage was the establishment of compulsory
public education in Taiwan, which compelled families to send all children, including daughters and adoptive shim-pua daughters to school. Greater exposure outside the home and education itself often created opportunities for shim-pua daughters to resist or escape the marriage arrangement.
Related concepts
''Zhaozhui'' ( or ) is a related custom by which a wealthy family that lacks an heir might take in a boy child, although such marriages usually involve a procreation-age male. Since these marriages required the husband entering the wife's household (contrary to traditional Chinese norms), they were relegated to a lower social status. During the
Qing dynasty
The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...
, these marriages became increasingly common to maintain inheritance bloodlines. The boy would take on the familial name of his new family, and typically would marry the family's daughter.
See also
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Child marriage
Child marriage is a marriage or similar union, formal or informal, between a child under a certain age – typically 18 years – and an adult or another child.
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* The vast majority of child marriages are between a female child and a mal ...
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Forced marriage
Forced marriage is a marriage in which one or more of the parties is married without their consent or against their will. A marriage can also become a forced marriage even if both parties enter with full consent if one or both are later force ...
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Japanese adult adoption Japanese adult adoption is the practice in Japan of legally and socially accepting a nonconsanguineal adult into an offspring role of a family. The centuries-old practice was developed as a mechanism for families to extend their family name, estate ...
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Mukoyōshi
A ; () is an adult man who is adopted into a Japanese family as a daughter's husband, and who takes the family's surname.
Generally in Japan, a woman takes her husband's name and is adopted into his family. When a family, especially one with a ...
References
Bibliography
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{{Types of marriages, state=autocollapse
Taiwanese culture
Marriage in Chinese culture
Types of marriage
Marriage, unions and partnerships in China
Incest