This text offers an exploration of changing concepts of marriage and gender relationships and attitudes towards sex in a rural Chinese community over the past five decades. It is based on a study of an industrialized peasant village in Guangdong Province from 1994 to 1996.

Chapter 1 Theoretical Framework; Chapter 2 Baixiu Village; Part 1 Finding a Partner, Love, and Marriage; Chapter 3 Marriage, Familism, and Autonomy; Chapter 4 The Story of Uncle Qiu; Chapter 5 The Story of Zhichao; Chapter 6 The Story of Wang Qiming; Part 2 Tradition, Women, and the Interpretation of the Self; Chapter 7 Women in Chinese Villages; Chapter 8 Wang Guizhen; Chapter 9 "A Female's Need for Fulfillment" in the Eyes of Traditional Women; Part 3 Sex and the Sex Trade Under the Reform and Opening-Up Policy; Chapter 10 Familial Culture, Gender Relationships, and Sexual Indulgence; Chapter 11 Sex, the Sex Trade, and Extramarital Relationships in the Eyes of Men; Chapter 12 Wealth, Materialization, and the Feminine Viewpoint; Chapter 13 The Paradox of in Baixiu Development Village; Chapter 14 Reflections on Methodology; Part 4 Epilogue: Baixiu Village at the Turn of the Century; Chapter 15 Baixiu Village at the Beginning of the Twenty-first Century; Chapter 16 Rural Political Reform;