In this month’s cultural post, I wanted to explore marriage in China from the past and current policies in place and the pressure that young couples, especially females face regarding marriage. Marriage, in simple terms, is a union between two partners that formally recognizes their relationship with each other. Marriage in China has evolved over the course of many generations from being restrictive towards women to allowing women to freely choose their partners. However, there are many factors that play into marriage laws including the involvement of the Chinese government. In 1950, a marriage law was passed to abolish arranged marriages and guaranteed the right to free marriage. Thirty years later in 1980, another marriage law passed to forbid third parties from deciding the marriage decisions including family members or matchmakers. In other words, only the two partners in the relationship can decide if they want to get married or not.
Between 1979 and 2015, the Chinese government created a family planning policy or popularly known as the “One Child” policy to suppress population growth. Under this policy, couples are restricted only to have one child per married couple, and more than one child would result in hefty fines. Because traditional Chinese culture favors males rather than females, as a result there are more males than females during this time. Favoring males over females is thought to arise from males being able to continue the family last name rather than females when they are married, they adopt their husband’s last name.
In 2015, the “One Child” policy ended as the government saw a decline in population growth, so by expanding the policy to two children per married couple, the hope is that this would boost the population growth. Giving birth and raising a child is extremely expensive, so many young newly wedded couples don’t have plans to have children, at least not for the near future. Additionally, more females are receiving higher education than in the past, so they are working their way up to positions as their male counterparts. Females are now more career oriented rather than wanting to get married at an early age and becoming a housewife. Therefore, they fear their position will be jeopardized if they go on maternity leave, which would cause the company they work for to find a replacement. Unfortunately, in recent years the state media and the government has pushed the concept of “剩女” （sheng nu) which translates to “leftover women” to pressure women to marrying earlier, which would subsequently make it more appropriate to have children. Those that are over the age of thirty and not married is considered a “剩女”. This concept greatly stigmatizes women that they are unfeminine if they are not married by the time they are thirty years old.
Parents that are anxiously wanting their children to be married oftentimes seek relatives or matchmaking agencies to find the right partner for their children. Interestingly, matchmaking agencies or parents will post their children’s CV in parks or centers, often without their consent, in hopes to attract any interested partners. This CV would include information such as yearly income and number of cars or homes they own. This appears quite materialistic, but the main purpose is to let the other person gauge how wealthy the owner of the CV is. However, some could manipulate the system and post whatever that makes them look attractive leading to many lies and scams. It is uncertain what the future may have for young adults that are not looking to get married, but one thing is certain is that marriage in China became a decision between the two partners rather than become restrictive in the past. Even though there is free-choice marriage, many adults do seek permission and advice from their parents as filial piety is a big part of Chinese culture.
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