Cultural violence against Chinese single women in contemporary China: an in-depth analysis of three key societal pressures used to compel unmarried Chinese women to marry- devaluation, sympathy, and shame

This article seeks to present an in-depth research analysis of the life experience of Chinese single women in China, during the contemporary period of rapid social transformation. Based on in-depth interviews conducted in 2017 across China, this article explores how cultural violence and the social pressures to marry for starting a family impact on the lives of single women aged over 30. The concepts of cultural violence and direct violence by Johan Galtung are taken as the theoretical backdrop for this research. This study finds three central arguments that are overtly and frequently used as direct verbal violence by family and wider society to coerce unmarried women to get married, namely devaluation; sympathy; and shame. Aspects of Chinese traditional culture legitimized and supported these pressure points, including patriarchal culture; family and marriage; filial piety; and collectivist attitudes. This article concludes that Chinese society still considers marriage to be a mandatory stage of life for women, and that single older women in Chinese society suffer extreme negative perceptions and social stigma attached to their decision to remain unmarried. Verbal violence from their families and in mainstream Chinese society is therefore used to push single women over 30 to get married and conform to societal gender expectations, ignoring the feelings and desires of single women themselves.