My 3 Fens: Apostasy for the bride – a increasing social problem

It is known that effectively pushing the economy and stimulating social improvement is not an easy task. But here, goals can be achieved much easier than in the fight against customs resulting from centuries-old traditions that do not necessarily adhere to modern times.

And if, in the economical and social area, the Chinese authorities can boast many successes, so in the case of circumstantial customs, despite countless efforts and changes, small changes are made.

To be clear, it is not spiritual practices or spiritual customs. And it is worth remembering that in China today, it is – especially among cultural minorities like Miao – even shamanism or related practices worshiping plants and animals.

One of the customs mentioned here, with which the local authorities of many Chinese provinces are unsuccessfully fighting, is the customized for you to pay the bride's parents immense amounts in the form of "remuneration" for raising your fiancée.

Since time immemorial, China has a tradition of engagement gifts. It's the customized of strangers and our culture. What is an engagement ring?

In addition to the symbolic meaning, the engagement gifts have a very mundane dimension – they are a confirmation of the ability of the "absorbant" to keep the future household and, consequently, to guarantee a restful old age for their parents and their future wife.

In China, especially in mediocre regions, this customized began to become a specified trade for young girls (often only a fewer years old) which parents “resold” to wealthy merchants, or local officials. The “purchase” provided immediate benefit to parents regardless of their daughters' fate.

The beginnings of the tradition of the "bride-out" date back to the times of the Western Zhou Dynasty (chin. 西周1046 -771 BC).

In Chinese, this customized is called CaiLi (chin. 彩礼 – virtually “the price of the bride”), which can be translated as “outstanding for the bride”, or “the fee for the bride”.

Today, the amounts that young men are obliged to pay to their parents are 1 of the basic barriers to the number of marriages in China.

The standard of surviving in China is rising, wages are rising, but the costs of surviving or property prices are rising, and the local prices for the bride are constantly rising.

Meanwhile, the number of married couples is decreasing dramatically, and the birth rate of children is decreasing dramatically. It is so no wonder that central authorities have included local authorities in the fight against CaiLi, which carry out many awareness campaigns. Many local governments have imposed a limit on the bride's fee. In tiny provincial centres, in agrarian areas, officials even intervene, including in negotiations between parents of possible spouses. There is no specified thing as abandoning the “offward”. There is no matrimony in Chinese villages without that fee.

And here it is worth highlighting the immense cultural difference between Europe and Asia (because the problem is not only about China, it is common in India at least): matrimony here, this is not the individual decision of 2 people. It's a relation between 2 families, 2 clans. Young people don't have much to say here. They are the subject alternatively than the entity in this full operation.

In large cities, for many social, even civilizational reasons, this customized begins to take on a purely symbolic character. This is 1 of the elements that “place” even want to disagree from “wage” (which they despise). Therefore, in cities specified as Shanghai or Canton specified fees are not great, and if paid, it is usually discreet.

But Shanghai and Canton is not the full of China.

An online sensation has late become a movie placed by a 30-year-old groom from TaiZhou region City (chin. 台州) from the state of Zhejiang (chin. 浙江). The movie shows how a car rented by this man with armed escort brings money, gold watches, jewelry, gold bars worth RMB 9.98 million (about PLN 5.9 million) to the bank, which was deposited in the account and in the lockers belonging to his fiancée.

This movie caused a storm on Chinese social media.

Some believed that the fee was adequate for the wealth of both families. seemingly the bride (or alternatively the position and relation of her parents) was worth specified contribution from the groom's family. After all, the amount of the apostate is the consequence of negotiations between the parents of the fiancés and not the fiancés themselves.

Others stressed that as long as the income is legal, it is no one's choice of how to dispose of their money. Since both parties have agreed to specified an agreement voluntarily, it is only their private business.

Another group of commentators felt that specified money provided young people with a peaceful start in life together.

However, many boarding parties doubted the happiness and success of specified a relationship, which was built on tremendous force and the necessity to get specified large resources that the groom could hear from his future wife “yes” during a ceremony at the civilian office.

According to a survey carried out in China, 73.8% of marriages here are on average after the groom has paid the bride's parents a customary fee.

In the state of Zhejiang, the average “offward” tallness is highest in the country and is 180 1000 RMB (about PLN 106 thousand).

The national average is 69 095 RMB (approx. 40 900 PLN).

In 2019, the Ministry of civilian Affairs (chin. 民政部) drew the attention of local governments to the issue of "the sky-high bride price". Since then, all year, the ministry has reiterated recommendations in this area. This is simply a problem mentioned as 1 of the key factors in social life, the main reason for the decline in the number of married couples, a substance requiring peculiar attention from local administrations at all levels.

The irony of destiny is that TaiZhou was elected by the Ministry of civilian Affairs as 1 of the 17 administrative centers where the 3-year pilot of the experimental improvement of wedding customs, with emphasis on combating “bad habits of advanced wedding costs” and “high price for the bride”.

The usage of an armored car with an escort to transport a ‘away’ in Chinese social media was considered extravagance. But, in fact, no 1 among the commentators and debaters questioned that the “price of the bride” alone in this (and other) case is exclusively a private substance for persons active in the case, both the parents of the bride and the bride. At the same time, there was widespread criticism that the event was made public. But not due to the fact that it's empathizing with property. due to the fact that specified an attitude is 1 of success in an ongoing effort to improvement wedding customs.

Everyone has a right to property, but they besides have obligations to another members of their community.

Rumor has it that as a consequence of this event, individual from TaiZhou City Council will lose his position. No more publicity.