Review of “Marriage Unbound: State Law, Power, and Inequality in Contemporary China”

Abstract

Nowadays in China, is it much easier for women to get a divorce decree from the courts? Do women have a higher chance to win the battle for custody and marital property? The book Marriage Unbound: State Law, Power, and Inequality in Contemporary China by Ke Li documents rural women’s experience of pursuing divorce in the court. Based on more than 10 years’ in-depth field research in two rural townships in Sichuan Province, Li provides a vivid picture of how rural women struggle in strained marriage, and how they mobilize state law to fight for their freedom and rights in intimate relationships, and how the judicial institutions respond to these women’s claims. The answer the book indicates is that the courts neither make it easier for women to get divorce nor favor them in allocating child custody and property. Li sees through the gendered outcomes in different individual divorce cases to make a big story that links state law, power, and inequality together.