Educational Media Reviews Online

Legend suggests that the women of Li Chang, a southwestern region near the Tibetan border, were held in higher esteem than in any other area of China. The women of Li Chang never married and both men and women took as many partners as they desired. When the new Chinese emperor came to power in 1723, arranged marriages became the norm. Because so many suicides occurred as a result, the region gained notoriety from the deaths of lovers who would rather die than marry. Most contemporary citizens of Li Chang maintained that such customs were mythical until Chinese anthropologists discovered the Mosuo province, a world without fathers and husbands.

As the skillful cinematography of A World Without Fathers and Husbands reveals, Mosuo is a picturesque, mountainous region near Tibet. Only recently open to outsiders, Mosuo is also a rural, underdeveloped area. Even basic subsistence can be arduous. Mosuo is not significant because of its landscape or lack of development, however; it is important anthropologically because its matriarchal customs replicate those outlined in the Li Chang legend.

To effectively convey the replication, filmmakers Eric Blavier and Thomas Lavachery focus on the community of Lake Lugu, where even today women and men do not marry. Instead, the men (and only the men) regularly visit their girlfriends, with whom they may procreate and sustain a lifelong relationship via conjugal visits. Men also stay with their own families. Women take on the authority and the difficult work as the head of households. There are no husbands in the conventional sense. In fact, as one interviewee asserts, "The Mosuo men are lazy." Because there are no husbands, there are also no fathers in Mosuo. Brothers and sisters live together as couples, and it is the uncle who assumes responsibility for his sister's children.

The arrival of technology, in the form of roads, televisions, and stereos, and other outside influences, like state-supported education, have begun to have impact on these woman-centered traditions, even while easing daily burdens. Despite the progress, several Lake Lugu residents state their preference for maintaining their present way of life.

A World Without Fathers and Husbands is significant because it provides evidence to contrast any prevailing notions that matrimony is universal and that men always rule households. While the interviewers' presence is almost imperceptible, this documentary is slow moving and repetitive in several places. The documentary could also have provided more insight into why the Mosuo customs came into existence.

Recommended for academic collections focusing on East Asian studies, anthropology and gender or women's studies.