Human Trafficking and Family Life in Late Qing and Republican-Era China

Even after serving two prison terms, Cheng Huangshi is willing to return to her old trade and keep selling people. Chen, a respectable young woman, is sold four times, passed from hand to hand by her husband and father. The warlord Na Shunhong's widow uses an underground military network to establish her own human-trafficking ring in Tianjin...

People are investments, and women, children, and the poor are the easiest to sell. What becomes of ordinary people caught in turbulent times?

As new laws replace old codes and customary practices become crimes, wives, servants, concubines, and child brides find themselves in a legal system in transition. Who counts as a legitimate member of a household, and who does not?

Beginning with human trafficking in the late Qing and Republican periods, this book follows traffickers and family life in North China. From the traditional Chinese family structure to changes in social law, it explores everyday life and social attitudes in a society undergoing dramatic transformation.