The missing girls and women of China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan : a sociological study of infanticide, forced prostitution, political imprisonment, "ghost brides," runaways, and thrownaways, 1900-2000s

243 Pages·2012·8.09 MB·English

by  Huang

The Missing Girls
and Women of China,
Hong Kong and Taiwan
This page intentionally left blank
The Missing Girls
and Women of China,
Hong Kong and Taiwan
A Sociological Study of
Infanticide, Forced Prostitution,
Political Imprisonment,
“Ghost Brides,” Runaways and
Thrownaways, 1900–2000s
HUA-LUN HUANG
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Jefferson, North Carolina, and London
Excerpts in Chapters 1and 2 from the author’s article “Where Are Our
Daughters, Mothers, Sisters, and Wives? A Typological Analysis of Miss-
ing Women and Girls in Greater China, 1900–2000s” originally
appeared in the Asian Journal of Criminology 4:2 (2009): 85–106.
LIBRARYOFCONGRESSCATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATIONDATA
Huang, Hua-Lun, ¡962–
The missing girls and women of China, Hong Kong and Taiwan :
a sociological study of infanticide, forced prostitution, political
imprisonment, “ghost brides,” runaways and thrownaways,
1900–2000s / Hua-Lun Huang.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7864-4029-0
softcover : acid free paper
1. Missing persons—East Asia. 2. Missing children—East Asia.
3. Sex of children, Parental preferences for—East Asia. 4. Female
infanticide—East Asia. 5. Women—East Asia—Social conditions—
20th century. 6. Prostitutes—East Asia—Social conditions—20th
century. 7. Women’s rights—East Asia. I. Title.
HV6762.A77H83 20¡2
362.83—dc23
2011052679
BRITISHLIBRARYCATALOGUINGDATAAREAVAILABLE
© 2012 Hua-Lun Huang. All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying
or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publisher.
Front cover images © 20¡2 Shutterstock
Manufactured in the United States of America
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640
www.mcfarlandpub.com
To my parents
w
This page intentionally left blank
Contents
Tables and Figures viii
Preface 1
Introduction 3
PART I. THE STUDY OF MISSING FEMALES
1. Conceptualization of Missing Females:
A Classification System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
PART II. MISSING FEMALES DEAD OR
AT HIGH RISK
2. Female Political Prisoners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3. Slain Baby Girls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
4. Ghost Brides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
PART III. MISSING FEMALES WITH
SOME CHANCES TO RE-EMERGE
5. Comfort Women . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
6. Trafficked Women and Girls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
7. Runaways/Thrownaways . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Conclusion 193
Notes 196
Bibliography 213
Index 228
vii
List of Tables
1-1 Operational Variables of the Three Concepts Agency, Structure,
and Setting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
1-2 Transformation of Operationalized Variables (Personal Choice,
Possibility of Participating in Conventional Job Market, and
Sociological Locus) into Ranked Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
1-3 A Classification System for Missing Females and Lost Girls
in Greater China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2-1 Political Movements and Suppressive Acts Directed by the
Chinese Communist Party, 1950–2000s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
3-1 Typologies of Killing Behaviors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
5-1 Japan’s Territory-Expanding Wars, 1890s–1940s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
6-1 Regular Taxes Paid by Chinese Peasants During the
Nationalist Era, Gansu as an Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
7-1 Plausible Causal Relationship Between Structural
Arrangements and the Disappearance of Females . . . . . . . . . . . 175
C-1 A Comparison of Different Types of Missing Females in
Greater China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
viii
Preface
This book is about missing females of Greater China.
Asan“Xfile” ofEastAsianhistoryandsociology(especiallydemog -
raphy and women’s studies), this topic, at least in the past twenty years,
did not attract much attention from sociologists and historians of East
Asia. Partially for this reason, it is not easy for social scientists to find a
book that contains information on this subject. On the other hand, even
when researchers do mention missing women/girls in their publications,
theyusuallyfocusonamacro-ormicro-levelissue, insteadoflostfemales
perse. Notsurprisingly,thispreventssociologyandhistorystudentsfrom
creating a conceptual framework to distinguish among the circumstances
that could lead to lost persons, including females.
Mymainpurposeinwritingthisbookistohelp solve theseproblems:
by using the region of Greater China as an example, I hope to provide
socialscientistswithresearch onmissingwomenandgirls, including their
socioeconomic categories and the social causes of female disappearance.
WhilemostcasesandcategoriesexaminedinthisbookarefromtheEast,
I think they must have many counterparts in the West. I hope that this
book will bring to light the social problem of lost children and women,
and I hope, this problem will gain attention in the future. I also believe
that this book can serve as a reference point for those scholars who want
to engage in a similar study.
Inthisbook, Isuggestdividingmissingfemalesintoeightcategories
(seeChapter1beginningonpage15). Thesecategoriesarenoteconometric
or regressional models used by economists and sociologists to forecast or
tointerpreteconomicorsocialtrends. Instead, theyaresimplyconceptual
toolswhichcanassistwriterson genderissuesin investigatingthosesocial
circumstances under which females disappear. The eight typologies of
1