Iin these weeks Millions of Chinese return to their hometowns to celebrate the country’s biggest festival ahead of the Lunar New Year on Jan. 22. Some have not been home for two years due to pandemic travel restrictions. There have been happy reunions, fireworks and banquets. But, for singles of a certain age, awkward issues also arise.
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The holidays are an opportunity for parents, aunts, uncles—even distant cousins—to urge their younger relatives to get married. This nagging is present in most countries. In conservative China, however, the pressure is high.
search online Emerald soul According to data from the search engine Baidu, this time of year (marriage urging) peaks. Troubled 20-somethings and 30-somethings flooded social media with complaints. “I used to like the New Year atmosphere, but now I hate it more and more,” said one person on Weibo, a Twitter-like platform. “If you are not married, you are urged to marry. If you are married, you are urged to have children.”
Now the pressure is also coming from the state. Young people in China have been marrying later — or not at all. The average age of first marriages in 2020 is 28.7 years, about four years higher than a decade ago. China registered 7.6 million marriages in 2021, the lowest number on record.
Fewer marriages means fewer births. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, China’s population was 1.412 billion at the end of last year, a decrease of 850,000 from the previous year. It was the first population decline since 1962, when millions died in a famine brought on by Mao Zedong’s “Great Leap Forward”. A shrinking and aging population is bad for economic growth and will create a huge care burden. But measures such as cash handouts and tax breaks to encourage couples to have children have had little effect.
There are several reasons behind this population shrinkage. Young people are better educated than previous generations and are more likely to pursue careers in their 20s. This is especially true for women. Owning a car and a home are seen by many as basic requirements for settling down – and many young people have neither. In cities, the culture of hard work leaves little time for people to marry and have children. In rural areas, expensive bride prices can hinder marriages.
Parents don’t care about such excuses. Some singles return home to find that a string of blind dates have been arranged for them.provided by others Emerald soul Countermeasures. One netizen suggested telling parents it’s hard to find a partner worthy of them.An article published two years ago Chongqing DailyA local newspaper suggested pretending to be deaf or continuing the attack, asking aunts and uncles about the marital status of their own children.
Another solution is to rent a boyfriend or girlfriend for the New Year. Some actors offer such a service. But the ruse is easier to pull off when the holiday is celebrated via video.
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