Abstract
Abstract This thesis explores the discourse on the abolition of the monogamy family and lifelong marriage in the early twentieth-century (1900s-1930s) in China. Chinese traditional society was founded on the patriarchal family. Chinese people take great consideration to family ethics. In the late nineteenth century, western theories which included anarchism, socialism, individualism, feminism, communism, etc. spread into China. In the early twentieth century, many Chinese intellectuals criticized the Chinese traditional family and feudal marriage. Some of them promoted monogamy family and lifelong marriage, but some of them opposed. Some Chinese intellectuals advocated the abolition of the family and marriage, and planned to build an ideal society without current family and marriage. In Kang Youwei(康有為1858-1927)’s Da Tong shu(大同書 finalizes in 1901-1902), the family would be replaced by public institutions, and the marriage would be replaced by short-term contract. Tianyi(天義) and Hsin Shih-chi(新世紀) were important anarchist journals which founded in 1907 and published many articles about cancelling family and marriage. In the early Republican era, several anarchist groups and socialist parties set up and encouraged the abolishment of the family and marriage. In the May Fourth period, more and more people discussed the possibility of repealing family and marriage system. Some people decided to be celibate, some people cohabited with their lovers without marriage ceremony, and some people organized anarchist groups which regulated members not to get married. These alternative thoughts and experiments which differ from the mainstream concept of the family and marriage are investigated in this dissertation and worthy of further study.