Young women are pressured to meet more people. In an event, the organizer says that it is for beautiful women who love qipao to meet new friends offline. (Photo : Reuters)
Young women in downtown Shanghai were seen protesting and carrying banners with slogans asking their mothers to lay off them getting married.
"Mom, do not push me to get married. That is my own business!" the slogan reads.
This is considered one of the events that are demonstrating how different the new generation of women are compared to the older generations. Characterized by higher independence streaks and more liberated outlook, these young women are said to be moving away from traditional family customs--the customs to which their grandparents and own parents grew up with.
Even with the increasing number of young women who refused to be bogged down with traditional customs with regard to their dating lives and statuses, China is still a country where marriage at a young age is considered a norm. Young women who reached their prime yet remain unattached, and often face pressure from their family and the rest of society to look for a husband.
For the past years, young women who still have not gotten married upon reaching the age of 27 years face the stigma of being "leftover women." The media, in particular, has been buzzing with stories of these women, often described as urban, educated, but single.
The term "shengnu" which translates to leftover women was even included in the country's official lexicon in 2007.
With the holidays approaching, many of these young women would go to their hometowns and attend reunion parties with both excitement and trepidation, alternating between wanting to see relatives they have not seen for quite a while and wanting to hide from relatives who cannot stop asking them when they would marry.
