Abstract
This paper aims to trace the trajectories and contents of the discourses of destroying the family and abolishing marriage in early 20th century China. On the one hand, it interprets the discourses within the context of the late Ch'ing intellectual milieu; on the other hand, it looks back to the historical residue of this period from the perspective of recent academic gender/sexuality and intimacy studies. My paper interrogates the arguments through which late Ch'ing intellectuals expounded on marriage-family and intimacy as a problematic in the economic-political and hierarchical power relations field. It also observes how their utopic imaginations of alternative forms of intimacies articulated other contemporary radical or conservative discursive resources. The paper argues that while late Ch'ing discourses on destroying family and abolishing marriage seemingly mainly criticize the marriage-family as an institution based on private property, the other side of the coin is that they rethink the politics of intimacy along with the categories of public/private. Discourses on ”destroying family and abolishing marriage” primarily argue against a bad institution; however, equally important is their attempt to recreate a possible reality where issues of intimacy along with sex, sexuality, gender, social care, happiness, well-being etc. can be publicized and critically rethought without being confined to the form of the private family.