Tongyangxi (traditional Chinese: 童養媳; simplified Chinese: 童养媳; pinyin: tóngyǎngxí), also known as Shim-pua marriage in Min Nan (Chinese: 媳婦仔; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: sin-pū-á or sim-pū-á; and in phonetic Hokkien transcription using Chinese characters: 新婦仔), was a tradition of arranged marriage dating back to pre-modern China, in which a family would adopt a pre-adolescent daughter as a future bride for one of their pre-adolescent (usually infant) sons, and the children would be raised together
These child marriages were more common among the poor, where they served to guarantee a wife for a poor son. The families that gave their daughters up also benefited to the extent that they no longer had to provide for a daughter, someone who was bound to marry and leave the family one day. Such marriages were often unsuccessful, and they were outlawed in China in 1949. In Taiwan, compulsory education got these girls out of their homes and exposed them to the broader world, often leading to them leaving their adopted families.[citation needed] The practice ended there by the 1970s
These child marriages were more common among the poor, where they served to guarantee a wife for a poor son. The families that gave their daughters up also benefited to the extent that they no longer had to provide for a daughter, someone who was bound to marry and leave the family one day. Such marriages were often unsuccessful, and they were outlawed in China in 1949. In Taiwan, compulsory education got these girls out of their homes and exposed them to the broader world, often leading to them leaving their adopted families.[citation needed] The practice ended there by the 1970s
