While in Taiwan legislators are pushing for another same-sex marriage legalization bill, for many young mainland Chinese, marriage is not necessary at all in this day and age.
Chinese youth are actually following global trends of marriage and fertiity rates for people in their 20s and early 30s hitting a record-breaking low level. The numbers came last week from Life Times, a publication dedicated to understanding the changes in lifestyle and health trends.
China has 200 million single men and woman, of whom more than 58 million live alone, based on statistical report from the Ministry of Civil Affairs. The country also has a low fertility rate of 1.8 children for every Chinese woman, according to latest population census in 2010, reported Global Times.
Finding a single man in his 30s is easy in China, not only because of the gender imbalance but also by the different definition and need for a marriage by the current generation. Unlike their parents who had to get married at a certain age as a social responsibility, some get married even if they do not love their spouses.
The current generation does not view marriage as a responsibility linked to age but as a matter of personal feeling toward another person. They want to look for true love as the reason to get married, lack of lack would mean preferring not to get married at all, explained Chen Yaya, sociologist from Shanghai Academy of Social Science.
In addition to the changing outlook, more young Chinese prefer to focus their energy on academic and professional careers, plus the pressure of living in a big city causes singles to have less time and energy for marriage.
While marriage is down, divorce continues to go up in China with 3.84 million couples divorcing in 2015. Celebrity divorces, such as that between actor Wang Baoqiang and Ma Rong only reinforce young people’s belief that getting married is not worth it, reported South China Morning Post.