Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 61-05, Section: A, page: 1919.

Director: Helen F. Siu.

In parts of South China, brides used to sing laments that liken marriage to death and curse the groom and his people. Previous studies of the genre explain it as spontaneous comments on a liminal experience or as expression of women's unique perspective. Based on new data from Cantonese villages in Hong Kong and Shenzhen, this dissertation presents a different view by focusing on the links between women's voices and a complex socio-cultural context which cannot be equated to Confucianism or patriliny.

The bridal lament did not exist in a cultural vacuum but was under heavy influences by primers and chapbooks. The anti-marital themes remained intact but were diluted by approaches that ignore the literary influences. Scrutiny of the relationship between marriage ritual and the singing of bridal laments shows serious gaps in versions of the liminality explanation and suggests that a woman's natal family and community represented an arena where she could express anti-marital sentiments even after her incorporation into her husband's family. If the bridal lament was not a liminal phenomenon, then its relationship to mainstream culture must be reconsidered. Informant accounts show that the anti-marital theme of the genre was supported by an anti-conjugal bias often used to control a young married woman. Consideration of views expressed in double-voiced genres suggests that local women's views of marriage were more complex. Co-opting elements of the dominant ideology, local women's favorite ballads emphasize loyalty to one's spouse as an ideal applicable to both men and women.

In presenting a new interpretation of the bridal lament, this study also identifies a dichotomous tendency in the study of Chinese women and its implications beyond the understanding the genre. Perhaps the most serious problem of the approach is a propensity to marginalize, ignore and deny married women's natal ties because it cut across gender lines. The results are pictures of nameless and voiceless Chinese woman as well as extreme versions of the patrilineal model.