A Study on the Change of Marriage Distance in Rural China：Based on 2010 Survey of Seven Provinces' Family Structure and Intergenerational Relation

Marriage distance is the geographical aspect of marriage circle. Marriage circle means that one group of people marry specific persons from specific areas or with special socioeconomic characteristics. Both unbalance sex structure of population and female's superiority in marriage migration lead to a very serious male marriage squeeze under the background of unequal development between urban and rural in China. As female marriage migration, some rural males have to expand their marriage distance and they have to marry brides from the places much longer than before. Using 2010 Survey of Seven Provinces' Family Structure and Intergenerational Relation data, the change of marriage distance in rural from 1979-2010 is analyzed. The findings are as follows. First, marriage distance is enlarged, especially after 2005. Second, males' marriage distance is shorter than females' in general while both males' and females' marriage distance are expanded. Third, the experiences of labor migration and high education have positive relation with marriage distance expansion. Macro socioeconomic institution change including marriage institution change caused the transition of field, relation and capital for rural population marriage behavior, which in turn lead to marriage distance change at last.