Theoretical framework: familism, women's liberation, and autonomy
Baixiao village: past and present
Finding a partner, love, and marriage
Marriage, familism, and autonomy
The story of uncle Qiu: the dictates of the parents, the words of the matchmaker
The story of Zhichao: the transition from tradition to modernity
The story of Qiming: a marriage in the 1990s
Tradition, women, and the interpretation of the self
A review of the research into women in Chinese villages
Wang Guizhen: growing up under the reform and opening-up policy
"A female's need for fulfillment" in the eyes of traditional women
Sex and sex trade under the reform and opening-up policy
Familial culture, gender relationship, and sexual indulgence
Sex, sex trade, and extra-marital relationship in the eyes of men
Wealth, materialism, and the feminine viewpoint
The paradox of the development in Baixiao village
Reflections on methodology
Revisit: Baixiao village at the turn of the century
Baixiao village at the beginning of the twenty-first century
Rural political reform: Baixiao village committee election.