CRI听力:Young People in China Faced with Marriage Pressure

The week-long Spring Festival has come to an end. Many young people in China have experienced awkward moments when sharing quality time with their parents and relatives. The question about marriage seems just inescapable around this time of year. "Bi Hun," which loosely translates to "arranged marriage," is a controversial subject as of late in China and has made the headlines of many media outlets.

CRI'S Li Dong has more.

Reporter: Single men and women get pressured during festival time in China. Forcing young people into marriage has become a new custom during the Chinese Luna New Year. Many unmarried youths are faced with the "harsh interrogation" from their relatives about why they are still unmarried.

Being married or not is no longer a private matter. Many Chinese parents hold the view that their children's real happiness starts with marriage.

Mrs. Lu, who lives in Beijing's Fangshan District, expressed her New Year wish:

"I hope my daughter gets married. Since I can't be with her all the time, I hope there's someone out there who can take care of her in the future. That's my only wish for the New Year."

Chinese parents tend to try everything to persuade their daughters and sons to get married. Nothing scares them more than the fact that their children are still single past 30. For those who don't want to compromise with their parents, traveling away from home has become a way to escape the grilling from their relatives and nosey friends.

On January 17th, a Chinese woman placed an ad in an Australian newspaper, the Chinese Melbourne Daily, saying she will never try to force her son into marriage, asking him to just come back home. The advertisement appeared as the headline, sparking a nationwide discussion highlighting the fact that many young people are forced to get married by their relatives in China.

Unlike their parents, young people have their own plans for their lives.

Miss Yin works at a mobile company and says that there are a lot of things on her agenda besides marriage.

"When I go back home for the spring festival family reunion, my relatives always ask questions like "how is your work?" and "do you have a boy friend?". Personally, it doesn't particularly bother me, but I don't want to answer these questions. I'm not worried about marriage. I want to think about it when I meet the right person. My parents seem to never stop talking about this. I might as well say something that will comfort them. I won't give up finding someone that really suits me. The most important thing for me at present is to do my job well and do some of the things I've really wanted to do."

Some young men prefer being solo to being in a bad marriage. Men seem more wary of marrying the wrong woman than of never getting married at all. They believe, if giving in to parental pressure, they might make the wrong choice.

Mr. Ma, a regional manager at an automobile company in Beijing, explains that he could fully understand the feeling of his parents, but he still want to make the choice on his own.

"I think parents really mean well when making their children marry. Their have a desperate desire for their children to have their own families and live a stable life as soon as possible. The positive side might be that young could put it on the top of their agenda. Yet, in some ways, it might not necessarily be a good thing. Anyway, marriage is a personal choice after all. When being forced to marry, people are very likely to make the wrong choice."

According to a recent online poll during the spring festival, "Why are you still single" has become the most frequently asked question and also the most hated one when young people go back home to visit their relatives. Luckily, as the Spring Festival vacation come to an end, many young people are heading back to work. They may miss home a lot, but many are relieved from those awkward questions until the next time they go back home town.

From CRI I'm Li Dong.