eprintid: 10170911
rev_number: 9
eprint_status: archive
userid: 699
dir: disk0/10/17/09/11
datestamp: 2023-06-01 15:48:06
lastmod: 2023-06-01 15:48:06
status_changed: 2023-06-01 15:48:06
type: article
metadata_visibility: show
sword_depositor: 699
creators_name: Zhu, Yan
creators_name: Liu, Chong
creators_name: Elley, Sharon
title: Relationships with opposite-gender peers: the 'fine line' between an acceptable and unacceptable 'liking' amongst children in a Chinese rural primary school
ispublished: pub
divisions: UCL
divisions: B16
divisions: B14
divisions: J80
keywords: Children, heterosexuality, gender, relationships, China, primary school
note: © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis GroupThis is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
abstract: This article offers new empirical data examining how Chinese children construct their understandings of heterosexuality and opposite-gender relationships with school peers. Gender differences and separation between girls and boys are commonly argued to be a ‘gender rule’ central to children’s peer cultures at school. However, this is rarely explored from children’s perspectives in China’s relatively conservative school context. Drawing on rural primary school ethnographic fieldwork with children aged 11–13 and teachers in mid-West China, the research unearthed children’s curiosity about opposite-gender relationships and unpacks how their articulation of a ‘fine line’ between acceptable ‘liking’ and unacceptable ‘liking’ between boys and girls sits within school cultures. These are evidently shaped by Chinese socio-cultural norms and teachers’ conservative attitudes towards gender. This causes children to paradoxically experience both curiosity and anxiety around romance and practicing heterosexual relationships in school. Significantly improving sexuality and relationship education in the conservative Chinese school context is also discussed.
date: 2022
date_type: published
publisher: ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD
official_url: https://doi.org/10.1080/14733285.2021.1970717
oa_status: green
full_text_type: pub
language: eng
primo: open
primo_central: open_green
verified: verified_manual
elements_id: 1913613
doi: 10.1080/14733285.2021.1970717
lyricists_name: Zhu, Yan
lyricists_id: YZHUK30
actors_name: Zhu, Yan
actors_id: YZHUK30
actors_role: owner
funding_acknowledgements: 201508060129 [Chinese Scholarship Council]; [University of Edinburgh]
full_text_status: public
publication: Children's Geographies
volume: 20
number: 5
pagerange: 714-727
pages: 14
citation:        Zhu, Yan;    Liu, Chong;    Elley, Sharon;      (2022)    Relationships with opposite-gender peers: the 'fine line' between an acceptable and unacceptable 'liking' amongst children in a Chinese rural primary school.                   Children's Geographies , 20  (5)   pp. 714-727.    10.1080/14733285.2021.1970717 <https://doi.org/10.1080/14733285.2021.1970717>.       Green open access   
 
document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10170911/7/Zhu_Relationships%20with%20opposite-gender%20peers_VoR.pdf