Newsletter No. 441

4 441 • 19.8.2014 亞洲都市女性的兩難困境 The Conflicted Lives of Asian Urban Women 日 本研究學系系主任 中野幸江 教授的最新研究顯示，隨 着結婚年齡推後，女性的行為正發生轉變。單身女性 為了平衡事業與愛情，面對不可小覷的新壓力。 中野教授深入訪問了一百位大致平均分布在香港、上海和東 京的單身女士，從而得出調查結果。採訪對象通過「滾雪球 抽樣」選出，即由受訪者引介其他符合要求的採訪對象，由 中野教授查詢她們對戀人、婚姻和工作的態度與經驗。 儘管三地都屬於相對保守的社會，但每處都呈現出明顯的行 為結構轉變，意味着家庭的典型定義—一對異性根據法律 的結合—對很多人來說已不適用。 中野教授的樣本中，三十至三十四歲的香港女性有近百分之 四十仍是單身，東京則為百分之三十四。「在以往的年代，幾 乎所有這類女性都應該已結婚生子了。」她說。 過去，女人一生都圍繞着家庭。不但要生兒育女，還要照顧 長輩或不能自理的親戚和家人。不過，女性的角色就相對 清楚。 此境不再。「研究女性很有意思，因為女性的身分認同主要 源於照顧家庭，」中野教授解釋，「如果她們不結婚，不當媽 媽，不用照顧家庭，那她們的生活意義何在？」 大部分女性都想結婚（東京只有一位受訪者說沒有結婚的打 算），但並不着急。日本文化曾將女人比喻為聖誕蛋糕，要在 12月25日前吃掉。女人應在二十五歲前出嫁，否則「身價」 會下跌。 中野教授的訪問顯示，現時日本女性到三十歲以後才會覺得 在婚姻市場上貶值。她們還說日本很多招聘廣告明文規定 女性申請者須為三十五歲以下，而較年長的受訪者認為自己 會因為年齡而不獲招聘者考慮。 這些態度證實了中野教授探討的核心主題：現今亞洲女性須 同時在婚姻和就業市場競逐，可兩者通常不可兼得。 例如，全職工作的女性指自己不願放棄現有工作，認為如果 有了孩子需要辭職，另覓新工時只有兼職肯聘用。可是養兒 育女仍被視為女性天職，迫使她們在就業市場中場休息。 受訪者年齡不同，態度也相異。三十歲以下的一般感到結婚 的大壓力。一位 Mari 小姐說：「此刻，我覺得如果結不了婚， 就一事無成。」三十多歲的女性，則對非傳統關係持更開放 態度，例如異地戀、不婚關係。四十多歲的女性通常已放棄 結婚念頭。四十歲的大阪人 Sana 說：「我們不需要男人，但 需要工作。」 中野教授說，工資上升不是態度轉變的唯一原因。以日本每 四樁婚姻就有一樁以離婚收場為例，婚姻帶來的安全感已不 如從前。三個城市的平均結婚年齡都是二十九歲。 在上海，結婚的壓力仍非常嚴峻，到目前為止幾乎所有女性 都很早結婚。觀乎現代中國女性的生活結構，這的確會造成 嚴重壓力。 「女人須接受良好教育，須找份好工作，須二十五歲左右找 個對象，然後二十七歲前嫁人，」中野教授說，「但這是很難 做到的，因為同一時期女性還須發展自己的事業，而談戀愛 在大學時期卻不提倡。」 東京的就業制度十分僵化，女性要兼顧事業與孩子難若登 天。然而日本的出生率仍然不足以維持現有人口。 保守政客尤其催促女性生孩子。「結婚被視為女性的公民責 任，」中野說，「媒體有很多對單身女性的批評：你們為何如 此自私，不肯結婚？」 中野教授相信社會層面的改變終將發生。但現時仍有很 多對單身女性的攻擊。在上海和香港她們經常被稱為「剩 女」，而日本則會稱她們為「單身寄生族」或「敗犬」。 「這幾個社會的結構都對女性不利，」中野教授說，「如果要 求女性在婚姻市場和職場同時競爭，往往不能兩全其美。」 T here’s a revolution in the way women in particular are behaving, with many deferring marriage, according to new research by Lynne Nakano , the chairperson of the Department of Japanese Studies. That is causing significant, new-found stress as single women struggle to juggle their careers and their love lives. Professor Nakano gathered her findings by conducting in- depth interviews with 100 single women in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Tokyo, with a roughly even split between each city. The interview subjects were selected through ‘snowball sampling’ in which contacts refer other potential interviewees. She questioned the single women about their attitudes to and experiences with lovers, marriage and work. Despite each city being part of a relatively conservative society, each is also seeing major structural changes in behaviour. Those changes suggest that the typical definition of a family—a legal link between a heterosexual couple— excludes a large part of the population. In Nakano’s sample, nearly 40% of women in Hong Kong aged between 30 and 34 are still single. The figure in Tokyo is 34%. ‘In a previous generation nearly all of these women would have been married and with children,’ she says. In previous generations, a woman’s life revolved around the family. That didn’t only involve childbearing and rearing—they were also expected to care for the elderly or any incapacitated relative or family member. But their role was relatively clear. That’s no longer the case. ‘It’s more interesting studying women because the main source of their identity is to care for a family,’ Nakano explains. ‘If they’re not married and being mothers and caring for families, what makes their lives meaningful?’ The majority of women want to marry—in Tokyo, only one interviewee said she didn’t plan to do so—but they are in less of a rush. Japanese culture used to compare women to Christmas cakes, which in Japan should be consumed before 25 December. Women were expected to marry before 25, after which their ‘value’ dropped. Nakano’s interviews found that Japanese women now consider their value in marriage markets to decline only after the age of 30. They also noted that many job advertisements in Japan stipulated that female applicants must be under 35, and older interview subjects said they believe they’re not being considered for jobs because of their age. Such attitudes demonstrate the central theme that Nakano’s study examined: the fact that Asian women are now expected to compete in both the marriage and work markets at the same time, activities that can be mutually exclusive. For instance, women with full-time jobs said they are reluctant to give them up, often believing they will only be offered part-time work if they leave their jobs to have children. But they are often still expected to raise children, which would necessitate such a break from the labour force. The women Nakano interviewed demonstrated different attitudes based on age. Those below 30 typically felt extreme pressure to get married. ‘At the moment, I feel that if I can’t marry, I can’t do anything,’ a woman called Mari said. In their 30s, they are more open to unconventional relationships that might be long-distance, or that are more casual than marriage. By their 40s, the women had often given up on the idea of getting married. ‘We don’t need men, but we do need work,’ 40-year-old Osaka native Sana said. It is not only rising wages that explain the shift in attitude, Nakano says. The fact that one in four marriages in Japan ends in divorce, for instance, means that marriage is not the safety net that it once was. In all three cities, the average age of marriage is 29. There is still very heavy pressure to marry in Shanghai, and until recently almost every woman wed at a young age. This creates significant stress given the structure of the lives of modern Chinese women. ‘A woman should get a good education, should get a good job, should find her partner by about 25, and get married by 27,’ Nakano says. ‘But this is very difficult to accomplish because women are expected to be developing their careers in the same time period, and dating is not encouraged at university.’ In Tokyo, the employment system is very rigid, making it extremely hard for women to pursue both a career and have kids. But Japan still has a rate of reproduction that is not enough to sustain its population. Conservative politicians in particular are pushing females to have children. ‘Women are expected to get married as a citizen’s duty,’ Nakano notes. ‘There’s a lot of media criticism of single women: why are you so selfish and not marrying?’ A societal shift will eventually happen, Nakano believes. But there is currently still a lot of criticism of single women. In Shanghai and Hong Kong they are often called ‘leftovers’ while in Japan they are sometimes referred to as ‘parasite singles’ or ‘loser dogs.’ ‘The way that these societies are structured is disadvantageous to women,’ Nakano says. ‘When women are expected to compete in a marriage market and a corporate market, they can’t succeed at both.’ 研究指香港、上海和東京三地的女性愈發獨立，卻同樣面對着 事業與婚姻難以兼得的困局。 Study shows women are increasingly independent in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Tokyo, but face an almost impossible task to mix money and marriage. 洞明集 In Plain View