Modernity in Negotiation: Economic Practices and Intergenerational Power in Rural Weddings in Funing, Yunnan

Abstract

Based on fieldwork from MS Village in Funing, Yunnan, this study examines how wedding expenditures, under the pressures of modernization, are localized through “decency thresholds” and reshaped by intergenerational negotiation. The authors find that families establish minimum acceptable standards around the “number and order” of wedding cars and the “main course and order” of banquets: elders hold the power to set thresholds, while young people achieve “visible decency” through ledger-based reciprocity and role-based division of labor within budget constraints. Different from the understanding that weddings are “upper limit competition,” Funing’s decent production emphasizes “lower limit compliance” and “average pricing doctrine.” This article complements existing macro-narratives with micro-negotiation mechanisms, revealing the negotiated reorganization of modernity in local settings.