Population Research Discovery Seminars

Co-Sponsor(s):

East Asia Center – Jackson School of International Studies

Population Health

Taiwan Studies Program

Supported by the CSDE G. William Skinner Fund

Grounded in the literature on the deinstitutionalization of marriage, this presentation explores why, despite holding diverse ideologies about marriage, people in Taiwan have not widely practiced alternatives such as long-term cohabitation or singlehood. The analysis is framed within the cultural-cognitive approach of neoinstitutionalism, examining how individuals and couples renegotiate their relationship with the institution of marriage.

Drawing on love and marriage histories from 35 Taiwanese adults aged 20–40, I analyze the meanings young people ascribe to marriage and how these perspectives align with or challenge the normative and regulatory foundations of Taiwan’s marriage institution. I also investigate the structural and cultural factors that enable or hinder the realization of their marital beliefs, including conflicting logics within the institution of marriage—such as the tension between traditionalism and newer logics, such as romanticism, the value of companionship, and the aspiration for autonomy—as well as the influence of surrounding institutions, including work, intergenerational family, and legal institutions.

Finally, I examine the strategies individuals employ when their circumstances do not allow them to act on their marital beliefs, focusing on those who do not wish to marry but ultimately do, and those who wish to marry but remain single. Strategies such as challenging multigenerational obligations within marriage and adopting practices that blur the distinctions between cohabitation and traditional marriage, for example, reshape the institution of marriage in its fundamental structure and meaning.

---

Lake Lui is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at National Taiwan University. She is also affiliated with the Taiwan Social Resilience Center at National Taiwan University and the Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology (CSDE) at the University of Washington. Her research explores how global forces such as economic restructuring, migration, and sociocultural changes interact with national policies to shape gender relations and family dynamics in Asia. Using both qualitative and quantitative methods, she examines marriage formation processes, household dynamics, and fertility decisions. Her recent work investigates the relationships among im/mobilities, political contestations, political repression, and the role of the family in weathering changes. Her major publications have appeared in Social Forces; Sociology; International Migration Review; The Sociological Review; Social Science Research; and Journal of Family Issues. She is also the author of Re-negotiating Gender: Household Division of Labor when She Earns More than He Does (Springer).