Author's Preface
Author's Preface
I.Why I wrote this book?
Why did I write this book dealing with exploration of domestic violence? This will be illustrated in relation to two aspects:the problem and the research background.
Domestic violence has been seen as a global issue of society and is serious and widespread.For example,in Britain,Walby &Allen（2004）found that 12.9 million women and 2.5 million men had experienced incidents of domestic violence at some time in their lives,while in China,domestic violence existed in about 30 per cent families among 270 million families at a single point in time (Jin &Jin,2002;Li,2003;Tan et al.,2006;Wang,2002;Zhuo,2003).Domestic violence creates sadness and hurt,injury and disease,cruelty and death in the family and seriously influences the relationship between family members,specifically between husband and wife,and between parents and children.This violence threatens stability of society because it is an important factor that leads to broken families.For example,about 100,000 families (25%,100,000/400,000) were broken by domestic violence every year in China according to the 1994 White Book of Women (Jin &Jin,2002;Wang,2002;Wei,2004;Zhuo,2003).
Domestic violence has also been seen as a gender issue by feminist researchers.Women experience domestic violence differently in the home to men.Women have been the main victims of such violence according to the previous studies of the UK(e.g.Mirrlees-Black,1999Povey,2008 &Walby et al.,2004) and also in China (e.g.Huang,Sun &Lu,2003;Li,2003;Liang et al.,2004;Yi,2002).For example,32 per cent of women had experienced domestic violence from this person four or more times compared with only 11 per cent of men (Walby et al.,2004;Mirrlees-Black,1999).In China,more than 89 per cent of men violated their wives by domestic violence at some time (Huang et al.,2003;Li,2003;Liang et al.,2004;Sun &Lu,2003;Tan et al.,2006;Wang &Xiao,2004;Yi,2002).Apparently,women and men do not share similar life-chances (Hanmer et al.,2000) in the home.Women will be threatened by this violence more than men.
Domestic violence has been further seen as a health issue (Dobash and Dobash,1992;Pahl,1995;Pryke and Thomas,1998;Williamson,2000;Yang,2003).This is because abusive behaviour caused by domestic violence may impact on victims physically and psychologically.These impacts are closely linked to bodily and mental health of victims.For example in the UK,6.6 million incidents of domestic physical assault included 2.9 million incidents of injury (Mirrlees-Black,1999).In China,some cases particularly indicated how victims suffered domestic violence.For example,on 27 July 2004,Mrs Wei felt a severe pain in her head when she slept.When she opened her eyes,she saw that her husband held the bloody knife and was cutting her head.Then he cut her whole body again:head,arms,legs,hands,etc.with more than twenty cuts (Xin,2004).In another example,the husband had not spoken to his wife,Mrs Ze,for twenty years and this psychological violence had affected her ability to sleep,which contributed to her low moods and ultimately,her heart disease (Li &Zhou,2002).
Domestic violence has been explored for more than 30 years around the world.However,in China,domestic violence as a foreign term was gradually accepted by some Chinese academics who initiated research into it in the 1990s,particularly after the 1995 UN Women's Conference in Beijing(Ye,2008).In previous years,nobody thought that this behaviour one person violated another in the home was'domestic violence',and this was seen as a 'private' matter in China (Ye,2010).Victims would not tell or report their hurt experiences to others.People did not know what was happening behind closed doors and would not like to involve themselves in this 'private' matter even if they knew about it.The notion 'Even an upright official finds it hard to settle a family matter' (qingguan nan duan jiawushi) influenced people who also lacked awareness about intervention as possible (Wei,2003).
In today's China,domestic violence is becoming a more public issue (Bu,2005;Guo,2002;Hester,2000;Liu,2003;Song,2002).Firstly,this reflects that the Chinese government has paid attention to the issue of domestic violence.A series of policy and legal developments in relation to this issue was promulgated and stipulated,for example,the Green Book of Women (2006) and China New Marriage Law (2001) where this issue was included.The media including newspapers,magazines,television and broadcasting programs have also covered many stories in relation to domestic violence and played a role in making it public (Bu &Milwertz,2004;Rong,2004).Within this context,Chinese people have also started to acknowledge such behaviour 'fuqi daja' (couple-fighting) or 'fuqi chaojia' (couplequarrelling),more specifically,'laogong da laopo' (wife-beating) or 'naren da nüren'(women beating) is not 'private' and should be prohibited.
For more than a decade,Chinese academics and practitioners have contributed to this research and have collected empirical data on many dimensions of violence in families.For example,in 2002,the Office[1] of the All-China Women's Federation(ACWF) received 36,600 letters about domestic violence.The numbers increased 40 per cent from the previous year (Li &Zhai,2003).The results of these investigations indicated that Chinese people would like openly to tell their stories and to access assistance aid from organisations and agencies.
As many academics and practitioners point out,psychological violence is a very common aspect of domestic violence (Horley,1988;Kelly,1988;Mooney,2000;Smith,1989;Yan,2004).This violence,a newer term (Wang,2004),is called 'cold' violence (leng baoli) (Guo,2004;Hu &Zhang,2003;Hou,2006;Yi,2007) and has been seen as a new research trend in China (Luo,2001;Tang,2003;Wang,2004).Within the Chinese context,Chinese academics and practitioners separate psychological violence from domestic violence.This is in contrast to the research style of most UK scholars and practitioners.The difference may be caused firstly by the Chinese legal and cultural context.For example,prohibition of domestic violence was first stipulated in the Marriage Law only in 2001 and the law contains only a non-explicit definition of psychological violence.Furthermore,the phenomenon of such abuse appears to be especially prominent in comparison with physical and sexual violence.For example,65 per cent of husbands in 3,500 families,according to a survey conducted by the China Law Society,did not communicate with or neglected their wives (Yang,2004).Sixty-five per cent of women suffered language abuse (Zhang,2002).The Police Report Centre in Dalian reported that 70-80 per cent of 834 cases dealt with psychological violence (Tang,2003).Chinese researchers have therefore begun to pay more attention to research on such violence.
Chinese research in this field tends to focus only on general prevalence but usually not on specific aspects concerning gender,husbands/wives,and impacts of abuse.Previous studies have seldom examined how much psychological violence,specifically,occurs between wives and husbands,or what forms of psychological violence are used more frequently between couples.Further questions concern what types of such violence are likely to occur or whether there is a difference in such violence between intellectual and non-intellectual families.How do wives and husbands specifically experience psychological violence? Why do wives/husbands like to use psychological violence (e.g.verbal or non-verbal violence) to abuse their partners? How does psychological violence impact on victims? Is there gender inequality in psychological violence between wives and husbands? Accordingly,this thesis will explore these aspects and will investigate psychological violence between wives and husbands with different educational backgrounds.
Thus,the purpose of the research project,at a broad level,is to examine domestic violence in China,focusing on South-Central China.Its specific and main aim is to investigate experiences of psychological violence in families,mainly between wives and husbands,to investigate what forms (such as verbal forms including ridicule,swearing,cursing,dirty language,etc.,and non-verbal forms including facial expression,gesture of threats,non-communication,etc.) are used by couples in domestic conflict,to investigate how psychological violence impacts on victims,to investigate whether there is gender inequality in this violence between couples,and to investigate whether psychological violence occurs differently between intellectual and non-intellectual families.Through these investigations,this thesis will reveal different behaviours,attitudes,emotions and experiences in relation to married women and men.It will also exhibit some features of psychological violence used/ experienced by Chinese couples,including the extent,forms and impacts.
II.The contents and structure
The book includes three parts,with eleven chapters.Part I,with four chapters,is a literature review of research on domestic violence in the UK and China and on marriage and family,gender inequality and communication.Each chapter discusses the theoretical literature on these topics.
Chapter 1 focuses on definitions of domestic violence by British and Chinese academics and practitioners.As Pryke and Thomas (1998) emphasise,defining something means attempting to recognise its essential nature.Drawing on this first step in my research,I learnt that there were similarities and differences in these definitions between the two countries.In particular,through theses similarities,I found that the awareness of domestic violence by the respondents,in particular by women,is quite common although the history of using the term 'domestic violence' and of discussing this violence openly is very different between the two countries.Through these differences,I found that the different social systems and cultures appeared to have influenced the definitions.This is an interesting research topic,which may not have been investigated before and which may benefit future exploration of domestic violence in China.For example,the issues of gender and power are not clearly or directly shown in Chinese definitions.For this,Chinese researchers may need to use the lens of gender to look at domestic violence when they explore it.
Chapter 2 looks at previous studies of domestic violence in the UK and China.These studies specifically deal with how widespread domestic violence is thought to be,and what experiences and attitudes the general public has regarding it.While looking at these previous studies,I learnt that there were similarities and differences in them between the two countries.With regard to similarities,these may be reflected in both points.One is that the British and Chinese studies have commonly shown that domestic violence is a social issue and women may be the main victims.Another is that no matter where and how domestic violence occurs,the experiences and impacts are nearly similar for victims in both countries.In respect to differences,these may be reflected mainly in research styles between the UK and China.The British research has begun to reach a more standardised and precise level,whereas the Chinese research may still be fairly general.
Chapter 3 discusses marriage and family and gender inequality in relation to domestic violence.As pointed out in Chapter 1,domestic violence is characterised as occurring between adults who are or have been intimate partners or in a family relationship (Hague and Malos,2005;Home Office[2];Lan &Jin,2000;Xu,2004;WA[3]).It particularly occurs between adults in a sexual relationship,either within a marriage or cohabitation (Mooney,2000).Chapter 3 states that research on domestic violence cannot be separated from a consideration of marriage and family.Moreover,gender inequality can be viewed as providing the context for violence between wives and husbands,but the different social systems between the UK and China give rise to varying understandings (Hester,2005).For example,in respect to family,the British definitions focus mainly on family contents,form,role and right,etc.,while Chinese definitions centre more on the relationship between family members and between family and society.This chapter emphasises that gender is created unnaturally,that is,socially,culturally and via law.Gender inequality is a symbol of power and a reflection of patriarchy.
Chapter 4 explains gender inequality in communication.Firstly,this chapter talks about language which is a major component of any human culture and a medium of representation (Cameron,1992;Cameron,1998) and has a close relationship with humanity.Then it focuses on differences in verbal and non-verbal communication between women and men.Through these differences,we can see that there is gender inequality between women and men caused not by biology but by history,culture,society or patriarchy.
Part II,with three chapters,discusses research methodology.Methodology is the principle or approach on which researchers base their research,while method is a tool or technique with which they examine and explore problems.Chapter 5 briefly examines 'feminist' methodology,and describes why feminist methodology will be used in this exploration.This chapter particularly elaborates the core of feminist methodology focusing on gender and gender inequality,and at least partly understanding women's world (Harding,1987;Skinner et al.,2005).Chapters 6 and 7 specifically talk about the research methods developed in this study,which included questionnaires and interviews,and illustrate why these instruments were used.Importantly,these two chapters describe in detail how the methods were conducted in practice,as reflected in design,collection,samples,and data analysis of questionnaire and interviews.
Part III,having four chapters,provides the research findings as well as discussion.Chapter 8 mainly presents the interview data in relation to opinions about a base of a happy marriage and family and also had a briefly overview of opinions about this by the academics and practitioners.This explores whether their concept of marriage and family is still affected by the traditional culture.Through the analysis,gender issues in relation to the division of labour and status may still exist in some families,which impacts on their attitude to marriage and behaviour in the family.
Chapter 9 presents both the interview and questionnaire data in relation to verbal and non-verbal behaviour as forms of psychological violence.From the interview data,we can firstly see how the respondents conceptualised communication in marital life.With their own experiences,they noted that unhealthy[4] communication between couples could cause domestic violence in the home.From both types of data,we can also see what types of communication in relation to verbal and nonverbal behaviour appear prominently in conceptualisation of communication by the interviewees.Through the analysis,a gender issue arises in relation to noncommunication and dirty language used by wives and husbands.Women are the main victims in these two behaviours.
Chapter 10 also presents both interview and questionnaire data and focuses on how the respondents experienced psychological violence in relation to verbal/nonverbal abuse in the home.In this chapter verbal abuse includes ridicule,and nonverbal abuse includes use of facial expression (glaring),body gesture (moving fi sts and stamping foot) and involvement of a 'third party'.Through the analysis of both interview and questionnaire data,we can see that there is a gender difference in these verbal and non-verbal behaviours used/experienced/narrated by wives and husbands.In particular,wives and husbands tended to see this gender issue differently,which may be linked to division of labour,position in family,power and the traditional culture.Because of this gender issue,wives may be the main victims again in these specific verbal and non-verbal behaviours.This chapter also tries to explore whether there is a difference in psychological violence used by intellectuals and non-intellectuals.
Chapter 11,through the analysis of qualitative and quantitative data,discusses the different impacts of psychological violence the respondents conceptualised.These different impacts focus on two aspects:emotions and health.The former linked to anger,sadness,ashamed and insult and the latter linked to physical and mental effects.Through the analysis,it is undoubted that domestic violence impacts on wives and husbands' general health.
【注释】
[1]The office is located in Department of Rights and Interests in the ACWF,which specially deals with letters of complaint from the people and the calls they make to lodge complaints.
[2]See Hester and Westmarland,2005.
[3]http://www.womensaid.org.uk/what_is-dv.htm [Accessed:September 6 2005].
[4]The word 'unhealthy' means 'no good' (buliang) behaviour in China and implies 'harmful' or 'hurtful' behaviour.