Marriage and Marriageability

Chigusa Yamaura

Description

How do the Japanese men and Chinese women who participate in cross-border matchmaking-individuals whose only interaction is often just one brief meeting-come to see one another as potential marriage partners? Motivated by this question, Chigusa Yamaura traces the practices of Sino-Japanese matchmaking from transnational marriage agencies in Tokyo to branch offices and language schools in China, from initial meetings to marriage, the visa application processes, and beyond to marital life in Japan.Engaging issues of colonial history, local norms, and the very ability to conceive of another or oneself as marriageable, Marriage and Marriageability rethinks cross-border marriage not only as a form of gendered migration, but also as a set of practices that constructs marriageable partners and imaginable marriages. Yamaura shows that instead of desiring different others, these transnational marital relations are based on the tactical deployment of socially and historically created conceptions of proximity between Japan and northeast China. Far from seeking to escape local practices, participants in these marriages actively seek to avoid transgressing local norms. By doing so on a transnational scale, they paradoxically reaffirm and attempt to remain within the boundaries of local marital ideologies.

Sujets

• Sociologie, société et politique
• Dating
• Japan
• China
• Gender studies

Informations

• Publié par: Cornell University Press
• Date de parution: 15 juillet 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781501750168
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 5 Mo

Extrait

MARRIAGE AND MARRIAGEABILITY

MARRIAGE AND MARRIAGEABILITY The Practices of Matchmaking between Men from Japan and Women from Northeast China

ChiGuSa YaMaura

CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS ITHACA AND LONDON

Copyright © 2020 by Cornell University

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850. Visit our website at cornellpress.cornell .edu.

First published 2020 by Cornell University Press

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data

Names: Yamaura, Chigusa, 1977–author. Title: Marriage and marriageability : the practices of matchmaking between men from Japan and women from Northeast China / Chigusa Yamaura. Description: Ithaca : Cornell University Press, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2019046099 (print) | LCCN 2019046100 (ebook) | ISBN 9781501750144 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781501750151 (epub) | ISBN 9781501750168 (pdf) Subjects: LCSH: Intercountry marriage—Japan. | Intercountry Marriage— China—Manchuria. | Dating services—Japan. | Dating Services—China— Manchuria. | Ethnology—Japan. | Ethnology—China—Manchuria. Classification: LCC HQ1032 .Y34 2020 (print) | LCC HQ1032 (ebook) | DDC 306.84/518–dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019046099 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019046100

For Todd

Contents

Acknowledgments Note on Naming, Translating, and Converting

Introduction: Beginnings

1.  From Manchukuo to Marriage 2.  The Making and Unmaking of “Unmarriageable Persons” in Japan 3.  Creating “Similar” Others at Transnational Matchmaking Agencies in Japan 4.  Marrying Up, Down, or Off in Dongyang 5.  Gendered Investments in Marriage Migration 6.  Crafting Legitimate Marital Relations

Conclusion: Yen orEn?

Notes References Index

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181 189 199

Acknowledgments

Woven throughout this book are the generosity, kindness, encouragement, strug gles, frustrations, desperation, and both tears and laughter that many people have shared with me over the years. I am hugely grateful to those who helped me in the process of researching and writing this book. First, my thanks go to the peopleImetduringmyfieldworkbothinJapanandChina.Ireallyappreciate their generosity in letting me be part of their lives and their kindness in caring about my health and safety, regardless of whatever they themselves might have been facing. Although I began my research into the industry of crossborder matchmaking with a rather critical eye, the time spent with them made it possi ble for me to understand the intimately human dimensions of this phenomenon. Without their munificence and help, I could not have managed the “notalways easy” fieldwork and this book could not have been written. Although they all ap pear under pseudonyms in the book, I can visualize each face and my sincere hope is that they are all doing well in Japan, China, or wherever they may be. My gratitude also goes to those who have helped me turn my fieldwork into a work of ethnography. I am deeply indebted to Louisa Schein. Her analytical eye pushed me further in examining and making sense of these practices and her be lief in me kept me going. I was also very fortunate to work with Bruce Grant. His intellectual and emotional support helped me survive through the process of writ ing. It was his comments that added a final twist to the argument in this book. I would also like to thank Parvis GhassemFachandi, Laura Ahearn, and Ulla Berg for providing both critical feedback and support. I first encountered this phenom enon in 2002, and I would like to thank Chris Nelson and Mary Ann O’Donnell for sharing my impulse that this was worthy of studying and encouraging me to continue my explorations of it. Many other people helped me in the process of writing this book at multiple stages. My thanks go out to Eunsung Lee, Laura Lovin, Sarah Wise, Satsuki Taka hashi, Simone Delerme, Margarita Huayhua, OhJung Kwon, June Hee Kwon, Caren Freeman, and Lily Chumley. I am particularly grateful to Allison Alexy, Glenda Roberts, and Jesook Song for their feedback, which pushed me further and helped me form a more nuanced perspective. At Cornell University Press, I am extremely grateful to Roger Hayden, who originally showed his interest in this project, and Jim Lance, who subsequently supported me throughout the process with his kindness and always warm and

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