Meng Yang, Yang Bo, Li Shuzhuo, Feldman Marcus W
Institute for Population and Development Studies, School of Public Policy and Administration, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shaanxi China.
International Business School, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an, Shaanxi China.
Asian Bioeth Rev. 2021 Jan 12;13(1):77-89. doi: 10.1007/s41649-020-00163-x. eCollection 2021 Mar.
In the traditional system of Chinese families, individuals are embedded in the institution of the family with defined obligations to enhance family development. As a consequence of the male-biased sex ratio at birth in China since the 1980s, an increasing number of surplus rural males have been affected by a marriage squeeze becoming involuntary bachelors. Under China's universal heterosexual marriage tradition, family development of rural involuntary bachelors has largely been ignored, but in China's gender-imbalanced society, it is necessary to adopt a family-based approach to identify and study the plight of rural involuntary bachelors. Studies on gender imbalance indicate that these men face multiple risks from the perspectives of their life course, the family life cycle, and the family ethic. To a certain extent, these risks are caused by a conflict between the individual's family life and family ethics and are mainly reflected in problems concerning marriage, health, and old-age support. Not only do these vulnerabilities affect the individual and family development across the whole life cycle but also pose major risks to social development in the face of strong gender imbalance. In order to deal with risks faced by rural involuntary bachelors, core ethical principles, including autonomy, beneficence, and justice, need to be adopted. Through adjustments to informal support provided by the family and formal support provided by policy-makers, risk of uncertainty in family development faced by rural involuntary bachelors could be reduced.
在中国传统家庭体系中，个人融入家庭制度，肩负着促进家庭发展的明确义务。自20世纪80年代以来，由于中国出生性别比失衡偏向男性，越来越多的农村大龄男性受到婚姻挤压，成为非自愿单身汉。在中国普遍的异性婚姻传统下，农村非自愿单身汉的家庭发展在很大程度上被忽视了，但在性别失衡的中国社会，有必要采用基于家庭的方法来识别和研究农村非自愿单身汉的困境。关于性别失衡的研究表明，这些男性在其生命历程、家庭生命周期和家庭伦理等方面面临多重风险。在一定程度上，这些风险是由个人家庭生活与家庭伦理之间的冲突造成的，主要体现在婚姻、健康和养老等问题上。这些脆弱性不仅影响个人和家庭在整个生命周期的发展，而且在性别严重失衡的情况下，也给社会发展带来重大风险。为应对农村非自愿单身汉面临的风险，需要采用包括自主性、行善和公正等在内的核心伦理原则。通过调整家庭提供的非正式支持和政策制定者提供的正式支持，可以降低农村非自愿单身汉家庭发展中面临的不确定性风险。
