Abstract:Matrimony, also known as marriage, is a social phenomenon of the combination of male and female and their living together, whose nature is mutual affection, colorful lifestyle and lasting life. Since ancient times, matrimony has been one of the most important distinctions of human evolution, the basic form of propagation and the direct way of lasting social history.

Chinese nation and western nation both attach importance to matrimony. In conventional marital perception, although both of them are similar in many aspects, divergences are apparent. “Gold fate God bestows”, a Chinese old saying, is a refined definition for Chinese marriage, carrying the best wish for marriage. In western bible, marriage is defined as the combination of man and nature. “Happy Terminal”, a western movie’s name, can be borrowed to summarize the western marital values.

Traditional Chinese marriage is regarded as the every basis of human relations such as monarch and official, father and son and family development. “Dictates of parents and words of matchmakers” is deeply rooted in the traditional Chinese family, defining the basis of “Gold fate God bestows”. However, the combination of man and nature is characterized the theological color with holiness. The former is deemed to be more complicated in marriage customs: “Liuli” in marriage and “qichu” in divorce, both of them reflect diversely the non-casualty and non-willingness in Chinese marriage. The latter one is purely God bestows and therefore is relatively concise: the pro-election, the engagement and marriage, all three is processed with religious rituals.

Marriage is diversified due to the scientific revolution and the World war One and The world war two. To our surprise, some newfangled phenomena are emerging: high divorce rate in the West, the DINK; “Lazy to divorce”, “Chinese style divorce” in China for example. But all above are operating in the formation of “Gold fate God bestows” and “Happy Terminal” respectively.

Key words: differences between Chinese and the Western marriage conception; marriage customs; culture blending; marital status.

Contents

中文摘要

Abstract

Chapter 1 Introduction-1

1.1Symbolic interaction theory-1

1.2 Exchange theory-1

1.3 General system theory-2

1.4 Other theories-2

Chapter 2 Marriage-3

2.1 Overall View-3

2.2 Three features of marriage-5

Chapter3 The Happy Terminal VS Golden Fate God Bestows-7

3.1The Happy Terminal-7

3.2 Golden fate God bestows-9

Chapter4 Feudal Sophistication VS Biblical Briefness-11

Chpater 5 New Tendencies Emerge Under the Conventional Concepts-13

Chapter6 Conclusion-15

References-17

Acknowledgements-19