CRI听力: 60 Years on Chinese People's Marriage

The past six decades have seen huge transformations in every aspect of Chinese people's lives. When it comes to marriage, the changes are even more drastic and overwhelming.

Our reporter Zhao Kun visited an ordinary family in Beijing to find out what has changed and what has remained the same in Chinese marriages.(www.hxen.net)

It's Sunday afternoon. 73-year-old Luo Zhiying, 63-year-old Sun Weilin and their granddaughter, Luo Xi, are watching television in the living room of an apartment in north Beijing's Haidian District.

The couple's oldest son and his wife are busy making dinner in the kitchen.

This is an ordinary weekend family gathering, but the apartment is filled with peace and joy. On the wall hangs a photo of the whole family. It was taken on January 31st to mark the 50th anniversary of Luo and Sun's marriage.

"On that day the whole family went to a karaoke parlor together. It was a great way to celebrate, although each generation sang quite different songs."
This is Sun Weilin. 50 years ago, she met her husband when they worked together in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province.

"There wasn't a matchmaker between us. We just fell in love through our everyday contact. We worked for a radio station in Taiyuan, and our parents were not with us, so we just invited some friends and organized a small party for our wedding ceremony."

The simple ceremony has yielded a marriage spanning half a century. But even 10 years ago, freely marrying whomever they wished was a distant hope for many sweethearts in China.

In May 1950, the People's Republic of China enacted the country's first Marriage Law, putting an end to the feudal marital and family system that had endured for several millennia.

Independent marriages based on mutual love and a family life have gradually become the norm in contemporary Chinese society.

Luo Zhiying and Sun Weilin were the beneficiaries of such a marriage during an economic trough.

"Material wealth played a very small part in our marriage probably because every couple was almost at the same economic level back then. As long as we could get along well with each other, no other factors would be taken into our consideration."

Two years after they got married, Sun gave birth to her oldest son, Luo Xiaoguang. When Luo was a young adult of marriageable age in the early 1980s, the government put in place nationwide family-planning policies.

Luo Xiangguang recalls:

"The government advocated late marriage at that time to control the exploding population. Although 22 is the legal age for marriage, your employers had to write you a reference letter for marriage registration. It was not a rigid rule, but it was obeyed quite well since it had become a kind of self-awareness in those days."

After the implementation of the reform and opening-up policy, China's economy began to look up, and living standards improved.

Luo's wife Zhang Xiaoxie says:

"My parents-in-law invited carpenters to make some wall units before we got married. That was the most popular furniture for newlywed couples. My husband and I could afford a TV set and a refrigerator."

The couple also had some wedding photos taken at the China Photographic Studio in Wangfujing Street.

"Each set of marriage photos followed the same pattern. Every couple posed for the camera with the same gestures and expressions and would sit and stand in waist shots or full-length shots."

Since the 1980s, the country's huge economic development and new ideas about marriage have triggered a higher divorce rate in China. Statistics from the Ministry of Civil Affairs indicate about 2.3 million couples divorced in 2008, pushing the annual national divorce rate to nearly 21 percent.
Luo says some of his friends have ended their marriages. He says people have become more self-centered and often overlook the power of mutual understanding in maintaining a happy marital life.

"My wife is the short-tempered type. If the husband has a low tolerance level, then fights and quarrels will never stop. But our life just revolves around some trivial things and is seldom about a matter of principle, so you can lead a peaceful and happy life with some tolerance and understanding."

In the past decade, marriages between Chinese and foreigners, "quicky" marriages following very short courtships, and cohabitation have come into fashion and are now accepted by more people.
Luo and his wife say they have an open mind about marriage alternatives but still hope their daughter, Luo Xi, will opt for a traditional marriage.

"We hope our daughter can follow the traditional marriage type and marry a guy with traditional family ethics, even if diversified marriage types have become more common these days. If her marital life is an avant-garde type, she will have to accept a great deal of social pressure."

But 23-year-old Luo Xi says she has not given much though to the topic. In her eyes, marriage should be pure and simple.

"I think as long as we love each other, it would be just OK for marriage. My parents' and grandparents' marriages are quite simple yet stable. That's also the marital life I want to lead."

Her parents say that nowadays material wealth is important in marriage, but they also believe that true love and a long and happy marital life hold more weight. All three generations of the family agree, although they see this through their own different contexts.

"Marriage means to live together, from young to old, and to death."

"Marriage means to support each other throughout each others' lives."

"Marriage is to find the right person to get along with; otherwise life will become quite lonely and tedious."

For China Drive, I'm Zhao Kun.