1949年底國共內戰結束前,不少出生中國農村的男性抓伕來台。1950年代間,國府對兵士進行禁婚令,以致他們幾乎終身難以結婚,故而日後被稱作「老單身」。此文分析「老單身」過去半世紀的情感生活,以求探究現代國家與親密性公民身分之間的關係。本文正文第一節描述兩岸開放前他們如何與同屬底層階級的台灣女性建立親密關係,而此類關係又建構了何種無法為正統社會所理解的人際倫理。1987年兩岸開放後,返鄉探親的老榮民興起第一波的兩岸婚姻。本文第二節描述此類婚姻在台的處境,並分析其可能的暴力關係。第三節引用親密性公民身分的理論,並認為就諸台灣二戰後社會發展狀況,西方學界此類理論須被修正,而修正的參考點至少須包括階級形成的性別、性、和生殖因素。
It was towards the end of the Chinese Civil War of 1946-49 that the Nationalist (KMT) government attempted to counteract its military failures by means of recruiting involuntarily people from the rural areas of the Mainland. This cadre of seized rural soldiers were generally and commonly referred to as 'snatched soldiers.' Throughout the 50s, marriage to these 'snatched soldiers' was legally forbidden by the KMT's Taiwan- based government- in-exile for the purpose of maintaining national security. The result of this enforced provision was that for the next fifty years thereafter the majority of this cadre of 'snatched soldiers' (now officially singled out as 'glorious citizens'), remained unmarried and were derogatorily referred to by all and sundry as 'old singles'. The lifting of Martial Law (1987) paved the way for them to visit their families on the Mainland. But quite a few of them had married local women and built family lives for themselves for the first time. Such marriages signal the first wave of 'cross-strait marriages' over the past decade. This paper, through an analysis of the intimate life styles of the 'old singles' over the past five decades, seeks to explore the intimate relationship between the modem state and its citizens. Through an examination of po-tentially violent relationships between these 'glorious soldiers ' and their Mainland wives, the paper attempts to highlight the significance of both class and male fertility that underlies the formation of an emerging social stratification of these 'Mainland Brides' as they have now come to be known by the society at large.