Normalization of “Second Wives”

Gender Contestation in Hong Kong

Bibliographic Data

ID12499390
AuthorsSiumi Maria Tam (Chinese University of Hong Kong, corresponding author)
Year1996
Volume2
Issue1
Pages113-132
Publication date1996-01-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAsian Journal of Women s Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1225-9276 • E-ISSN: 2377-004X
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/12259276.1996.11665778
OpenAlexW2217763338
LanguageEN
Citations received13

This paper discusses the recent phenomenon of bau yilai (literatly “keeping second wives”) is Hong Kong as the city becomes the nexus of South China's economic expansion. An increasing number of Hong Kong men have established extra-marital relationships across the border with mainland Chinese women. This new form of polygyny is believed to be extremely widespread, non-class specific and defying geographical restriction, almost second nature to male migrant capital and labor. The debate on the bau yilai phenomenon has a markedly moral undertone. Ironically the female campain to contest the perceived revival of polygyny resulted in its normalization. What was to be a re-evaluation of the institutions of marriage and family soon became a reinforcement of their patriarchal foundation. And as the phenomenon became commercially exploited and consumed everyday as various forms of popular culture, the illegal yilai relationships came to shed off its abnormality. This change shows that in the transitional period to 1997, Hong Kong's relationship with China interplays with the construction of individual identities in a fluid cultural milieu, manifested in the gendered negotiations and interpretations of their future

China · CONTEST · Demographic economics · Economics · Mainland China · Nexus (standard · Normalization (sociology · Phenomenon · Political science · Polygyny · Social science · Sociology · Demography · Gender Studies · Hong Kong and Taiwan Politics · Law · Socioeconomic Development in Asia

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