Love Stories from Old Picture Magazines

All social relationships in human society ultimately come down to relationships between people, and marriage is their foundation. It is not merely a matter of relations between men and women; it also involves a whole range of social issues, including childbirth, family bonds, ethics, child-rearing, education, lineage, and inheritance. Studying marriage in a particular era is therefore like peering through a window into that age. Drawing on an immense trove of Republican-era pictorial magazines and archival documents, this book takes romance and marriage as its distinctive lens. Through five sections, covering matchmaking advertisements, engagements, weddings, divorce, and heartbreak, it tells stories of love and marriage in the Republican era, revealing the views on romance, life, and values held by people of the time, while reflecting the historical development and social changes of the era as a whole.