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Confucius Institute Lecture + Seminar

"From courtship culture to dating culture: The rise of the single child generation and the transformation of the meaning of love."

Professor William Jankowiak
University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Thursday 18 October 2012, 15:00-16:50

Lecture Theatre 1, Elmfield Building, University of Sheffield
Northumberland Road, S10 2TU

The discourse on love and sexual expression has moved out of China’s shadows and into its public arteries. It was once forbidden to express it in public, but now it is the currency by which youth seek to demonstrate their commitment and mutual involvement. In contemporary China love is hotter than sex.

Professor Jankowiak will discuss the cognitive models of love and rules for sexual expression as they were found in urban China twenty years ago, and how they are being redefined in the 21st century in terms of commitment and mutual involvement. China's demographic identity as a rural society organized around the production of the family unit as a collective enterprise is giving way to a new image of family that is organized around conjugal intimacy and inter-generational emotional bonds.

Professor Jankowiak’s research explores the significance of China’s shift from a more formal courtship to an informal dating culture by analyzing the results of a dating survey, in-depth interviews, and public observations that involved urban male and female individuals responding to a series of questions concerning intimacy and marriage. His sample population is China’s youth (aged 17-25); he also relied on a variety of impromptu conversations with men and women concerning their expectations of what to do in a dating setting as well as how to respond once love arises. By comparing the two cultural eras, his research assesses the presence of cultural continuities and changes across space and time.

All welcome.