The dream of a happy marriage is becoming less affordable and less attainable for Chinese people. Escalating inflation, unemployment, and the difficulty of obtaining an urban household registration, leave young Chinese with “no money, no time, and no future,” according to two surveys. And when it comes to marriage, they must often choose between “naked marriage” or staying single.
“Naked marriage” refers to a couple getting married without a car, apartment, diamond ring, urban household registration, wedding ceremony, photo, or honeymoon; they simply obtain a marriage certificate from the bureau of civil affairs. For many in today’s China, it’s either that, or not getting married at all, according to a survey conducted by Jiayuan.com, China’s largest, members-only online matchmaking service.
These days, the starting price for a wedding ceremony in some large cities can easily reach two million yuan (US$317,794), and sky-high real estate prices are an even worse marriage killer.
Back in the olden days, the “three essentials” for getting married in China were a sewing machine, a bicycle, and a wristwatch, but now many young women expect the man to have an apartment or house.
While some say that naked marriage is a sign of true love amidst so much materialism, men are more willing than women to commit to it. Only 17 percent of women said they would agree to a naked marriage, while 64 percent of men said they were “more than desirous” to tie the knot under those conditions.
Naked marriage is extremely common among those born in the 1980s, who are buried in debt, in contrast to those born in the 1970s, who had savings in the bank at the time of their wedding, and those born during the 1990s of rich parents.
Staying Single
The majority of women, in fact, would rather stay single than opt for a marriage without all the accouterments, according to an academic study published in July by the Institute of Literature at Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.
The study found that 82 percent of single women between the ages of 30 and 50 said they choose to stay single.
“Buying a house is better than getting married,” the report quoted single females as saying.
“Married life is very predictable: going to work during the day, taking care of the kid and housework during the night, and going to visit in-laws on weekends. If unlucky, the husband may have an extramarital affair. Life is short, and staying single provides unlimited possibilities,” were common answers by women against naked marriage.
The study analyzed the growing trend of singleness in China, including several previous waves during the past six decades under communist rule.
The first wave of divorces followed the enactment of the first Marriage Law in the 1950s, which did away with “feudalistic” marriage traditions.
The second wave was in the 1970s when the educated youths who had been sent to labor in rural areas during the Cultural Revolution chose to divorce their spouses in order to be able to return to the cities.
The third wave occurred in the 1990s when economic reforms and opening up policy triggered materialism in people and further changes in traditional family values, and many people got divorced.
The report said that the previous waves were smaller in scale, but predicted that this present wave of people choosing to stay single is likely be a long-term trend.
Breakdown of Family
Besides the present factor of high cost of living, many other stresses contribute to the weakening of the family in China.
Millions of poor migrant workers are away from their families, including their young children, for most of the year because of the regime’s urban household registration system that won’t allow people to move away from their ancestral rural homes.
Tens of millions of peasant families have been uprooted and plunged into an insecure economic future as the state keeps expropriating farmland at an ever-increasing pace.
Additionally, the coercive one-child population control, which includes late-term abortions, forced sterilization, and infanticide, has not only created a serious gender imbalance, but is also believed to be a factor in China’s high female suicide rate.
Read the original Chinese article.
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