RESEARCH PAPER
Cultures unfolding: experiences of Chinese-Hungarian mixed couples in Hungary
Submission date: 2015-05-06
Final revision date: 2015-09-06
Acceptance date: 2015-09-13
Online publication date: 2015-10-05
Publication date: 2015-12-01
Current Issues in Personality Psychology 2015;3(4):254-264
KEYWORDS
mixed partnershipsChinese-Hungarian couplesintermarriagemigration anthropologyChinese-Hungarian relationship typesmigrant marriage
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
Background
The research outlined in this paper focuses on a subfield related to Chinese migrants’ integration in Hungary: Chinese-Hungarian mixed partner relationships. I present some findings of an anthropological study on Chinese-Hungarian couples in Hungary, although other localities may also be involved in some of these couples’ lives.
Participants and procedure
Based on interviews conducted with members of Chinese-Hungarian married, cohabiting and dating, separated or divorced couples, and on data gathered through predominantly online fieldwork, this research explores notions and values that are at play in shaping the dynamics of these relations.
Results
The sample of thirty-seven couples features two characteristically different types of relationships: those referred to as “student love”, and the relationships of “typical” Chinese migrants with Hungarians. The former tend to be much more successful and persistent in time, with two cases of divorce or separation out of sixteen, whereas the latter are considerably less persistent, with eight cases of divorce or separation and two cases of crises out of thirteen bonds. Another notable finding is that Chinese-Hungarian marriages are much more persistent in time if the Chinese partner is female.
Conclusions
The paper consists of the following consecutive parts: an introduction to the Chinese migrant context and inter-ethnic partner relations in Hungary; a review of relevant literature; presentation of research methods and fieldwork; presentation and discussion of the research sample; presentation of some results from the interviews; and conclusions.
The research outlined in this paper focuses on a subfield related to Chinese migrants’ integration in Hungary: Chinese-Hungarian mixed partner relationships. I present some findings of an anthropological study on Chinese-Hungarian couples in Hungary, although other localities may also be involved in some of these couples’ lives.
Participants and procedure
Based on interviews conducted with members of Chinese-Hungarian married, cohabiting and dating, separated or divorced couples, and on data gathered through predominantly online fieldwork, this research explores notions and values that are at play in shaping the dynamics of these relations.
Results
The sample of thirty-seven couples features two characteristically different types of relationships: those referred to as “student love”, and the relationships of “typical” Chinese migrants with Hungarians. The former tend to be much more successful and persistent in time, with two cases of divorce or separation out of sixteen, whereas the latter are considerably less persistent, with eight cases of divorce or separation and two cases of crises out of thirteen bonds. Another notable finding is that Chinese-Hungarian marriages are much more persistent in time if the Chinese partner is female.
Conclusions
The paper consists of the following consecutive parts: an introduction to the Chinese migrant context and inter-ethnic partner relations in Hungary; a review of relevant literature; presentation of research methods and fieldwork; presentation and discussion of the research sample; presentation of some results from the interviews; and conclusions.
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Copyright: © Institute of Psychology, University of Gdansk This is an Open Access journal, all articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license.
| eISSN: | 2353-561X |
| ISSN: | 2353-4192 |
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