Shim-pua marriage

A Shim-pua marriage certificate from Ming dynasty (1588)

Tongyangxi (Chinese: 童養媳; pinyin: tóngyǎngxí), also known as Shim-pua marriage in Taiwanese (Chinese: 新婦仔; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: sin-pū-á or sim-pū-á), was a tradition of arranged marriage dating back to pre-modern China, in which a poor family would sell a child, a pre-adolescent daughter to a richer family as a servant or a caretaker. In exchange, the girl would be married into the adopted family when both children reach puberty. The girl acts both as a daughter-in-law (to be married to the adopted family's young son in time to come) and free labour. The girl is usually a few years older than the male child. Due to the lower-class status of the girls, discrimination was often present, and slavery-like treatment was not uncommon.

A direct translation of "shim-pua" is simply "little daughter-in-law", while "tongyangxi" means "child daughter-in-law."

These marriages were often unsuccessful. This has been explained as a demonstration of the Westermarck effect.

In China, the practice was outlawed by the Communist Party of China after they seized power in 1949.

In Taiwan, shim-pua marriage fell out of practice in the 1970s due to increased wealth from Taiwan's economic success, making such arrangements unnecessary.

Related concepts

"Zhao-Zhui" (招贅) is a related custom by which a wealthy family that lacks an heir might take in a boy child. The boy would take on the familial name of his new family, and typically would marry the family's daughter.

See also

• Forced marriage
• Child marriage
• Slavery