Scrambling for power or cooperation for stability: A case study of mother-in-law and daughter-in-law relationship in China

The mother/daughter-in-law relationship is considered as the tensest in-law relationships in Chinese society. This study adopted retrospective interviews, observations and instant talks with two dyads of mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law to explore the nature of their relationships, language use and strategies employed in their daily discourse to scramble for power. The findings indicated that both mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law applied politeness and impoliteness strategies to save the face or manipulate power within a family. In addition, they reconstructed mother identities to make their own uterine family stable. This study is expected to make contributions to the understanding of the dynamicity and complexity of the mother/daughter-in-law relationships in China.