The Influence of Western Culture on Chinese Womens Marriage Values after Chinas Reform and Opening-UpI. The Meaning of Marriage and Its Function in the SocietyWhen someone begins on that arrangement called marriage, he/she is getting into something which is, to say the least, adventurous. When a couple gets married, they are doing something they know nothing about. And, from all indications, when they have tried it more than once, they know more about it the second time than they did the first. So what is marriage?No definition of marriage is broad enough to apply easily to all societies and situations. A commonly quoted definition comes from Notes and Queries on Anthropology. Marriage is a union between a man and a woman such that the children born to the woman are recognized as legitimate offspring of both parents. (Kottak, Culture anthropology, 2004:214.) It always involves some form of legally legitimized sexual relationship. Traditionally, marriages have had a religious basis. In the modern, industrialized West, marriage is based on a legal contract. In the Bible, women occupied an inferior social position to the nearest male relativesfathers, brothers, or husbands. Marriages were usually arranged in the Bible by the parents. Bible Marriage: In the Bible, the relationship between Israel and God was likened to that of a marriage: one based upon a covenant between two unequal parties. The “marriage” between Israel and God was expected to be monogamous and mutual faithfulness was required from both sidesotherwise, the relationship might be ended. Marriage is the foundation of the family unit. In this society and era, the family is the closet knit, self-perpetuating, self-protecting unit. Marriage and family life are microcosms of life itself. They can bring difficult time. Conversely, unhealthy or dysfunctional relationship can arouse problems that may persist form one generation to the next. Marriage and family are perhaps societys oldest and most resilient institutions. From the beginning of human life, people have grouped themselves into clans and families to find emotional, physical, and communal support. Although social commentators for many years have predicted the demise of both marriage and the family, these institutions not only survive but also continue to change and evolve. Marriage transforms relationships and conveys certain right. Marriage establishes legal parentage of children. It gives spouses rights to each others sexuality, labor, and property. And it establishes a social relationship between spouses and each others relatives. It also typically improves the health and economic well being of adult, stabilized community life and benefit civic society. II. The Influence of Chinese Traditional Culture on Women before Chinas Reform and Opening-Up to the Outside World.2.1 The Traditional Marriage Values of Chinese Women. 2.1.1 No Matter Whomever I Marry Live with Him.This proverb represents that when a woman marries a man, she will not leave the man whether he is rich or poor, healthy of not and whether their life is happy or not, they will live together until their deaths. This is an extreme view. However, in the traditional society, Chinese women always thought, “No matter whomever I marry live with him.” If she married a man, it means that she would find a life and psychology rely. Maybe the life was not happy after their marriage, but she would feel a sense of settlement and belonging.In the early twentieth century, a large number of women had lived in the countryside, they seldom had economic and political power to resist their husbands, because they were considered inferior to man and controlled by the whole family.In China, the parents asked their daughter to bind their feet, because they thought the binding feet looked more beautiful, and it could make sure the material wealth. Women had no poverty right and no political positions. Therefore, women had to follow their husbands and be obedient to them, though they were treated violently. 2.1.2 A Man of Talent and a Woman of Beauty, the Matched Family BackgroundIn the ancient China, for women, marriage was a passive matter. Some societies believed that parents who choose good partners for their children than young people with no previous experience. There was a popular saying, “the dictates of parents and the words of matchmakers”, which was proposed by the whole society, made women lost the opportunities to choose their husbands freely. In the old days, women married at an early age, in general, when they were 16years old, a matchmaker who was an old woman and a medium between man and woman would go to womans family to propose marriage. After the discussion, between two families would marry. As for the familys background, they should be matched or in an equal class. If the mans family was very rich, the woman must be very beautiful. But for some poor beautiful women, they could n