Child brides are not new in Asia. But in modern China where even the number of children a couple could have is dictated by the government, the photo of a 16-year-old couple who allegedly got married became viral on social media.
Teenagers falling in love is also quite common, and surely, there are instances of teen Chinese couples living in because they cannot legally marry yet. However, what sets the viral photo apart is that while the groom said he is 16, his face looks like he is only 13.
That’s the reason why the hashtag #13 year-old boy becomes groom trended in Sina Weibo, reported The South China Morning Post. The young couple were married on Feb. 15 in Guangxi Province, which The Beijing News reported on Tuesday.
The young groom, Zhang, described as baby-faced, is wearing a suit, while his bride, Wu, is in a white wedding gown. They actually only had a wedding banquet, not a matrimonial ceremony, since the minimum marrying age in China is 22 for males and 20 for females.
That means a six-year wait for the young couple before they are legally wed, but they have the blessings of their parents to live in, according to Zhang. The two met in 2015 and fell in love.
Zhang had actually stopped high school Year Two in 2014, even before he met Wu. He had been employed in Nanning during those two years. Wu, too have dropped out of school. Zhang, in a blog post on QQ, a social media site, said he quit school because he knew it would just be a waste of time since he lacks the ability to study well. He pitied his farmer-parents if they would further spend on his education and he would not perform well.
Chinese netizens had mixed reactions about the very young pair. Some supported them and said it they are in love, better to get married early if they would not excel academically. Others said starting married life early is a good way of having five generations in one house.
But one Tencent user commented the union of the two was a hasty decision. Others asked if the young couple was just playing a game. One drawback of young unions, particularly when they have a child, is that the parents have to acquire a hukou, a household registration document, and they would face fines for bearing a child and living in before the legal age, reported BBC.