Increasing Divorce Rates: Is China Facing a Marriage Crisis?

Increasing Divorce Rates: Is China Facing a Marriage Crisis?
Feb 25, 2013 By eChinacities.com

Editor’s note: this article was translated and edited from Ifeng News, and looks at the results of a recent survey carried out by Tsinghua University and Inside China regarding increasing divorce rates in China.

The traditional Chinese concept that “a peaceful family will prosper” (家和万事兴) seems to be coming under fire of late, given the recent marriage statistics. 2009 saw over 1.2 million Chinese couples happily tie knot, though this number was overshadowed by the 1.96 million divorces in the same year. Since the 1970s, the divorce rate in China has been steadily increasing, with an estimated increase of 7.65% in the past five years.   

An article entitled “High Celebrity Couple Divorce Rates” recently appeared in the Chinese media, which highlighted the fact that many Chinese celebrity couples divorced before their seventh wedding anniversary. The article stated: “Among the 30 celebrity couples around the world who divorced in 2012, 20 of them were Chinese.” Amid this broad discussion on the increasing divorce rate in China, a survey revealed that the divorce rate for couples aged between 22 and 35 in Beijing and Shanghai is over one third. What exactly has been the key factor affecting marriage in China? Could it be problems regarding children, money, or even love itself?

More recently a “Chinese Romantic Happiness” survey, conducted by Tsinghua University and society magazine Inside China, asked various couples what their thoughts on marriage were.

Survey says: most couples are actually pretty happy?

According to the survey, the top ten factors affecting the happiness of a marriage were: emotional attraction, communication, the willingness to understand each other, loyalty, children, income, sex life, relationship of mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, family relations, housing, and housework. Among the couples surveyed, 59% stated they were “relatively happy,” 17.7% said they were “very happy,” 14.2% said it was “hard to say,” whilst only 8.6% stated they were “not too happy,” or “very unhappy.” The statistics regarding happy couples were 4.8% higher than numbers from 2011. The survey also revealed that couples in their first three years of marriage were the happiest, while couples married for seven to ten years were found to have the lowest rates of happiness.

80% would choose the same partner if asked to remarry

Despite the dramatic increase in divorce rates in China, this doesn’t seem to imply that most married couples are unhappy, as the above statistics suggest. In fact, almost 80% of couples said they would choose the same partner if they were to remarry. However, when quizzed as to whether they would consider an affair should they meet someone special, only 57.5% said no.

Nowadays, extramarital affairs are becoming more commonplace in China, and are even accepted to a degree as long as it doesn’t affect certain aspects of the marriage. Developments with the definition of the term “affair” across various periods of time in China also suggest a growing tolerance towards the idea. From the age old phrase of “wearing a worn shoe,” (搞破鞋, meaning a woman who is not a virgin) to the more casual sounding phrase which emerged in the 90s, ”婚外恋,” which although can be translated as “affair,” literally means “love outside of marriage.”

Despite its growing acceptance in Chinese society, affairs are obviously potential marriage killers. In light of the survey, Inside China magazine stated that cheating was ranked as the number one reason for divorce, rated 17.5% higher than the second cause, domestic violence.

In summary, according to this survey, it does still appear that marriage in China is still a reasonably successful institution. Only 22.5% of those surveyed stated that they had experienced trouble in their marriage, and only 0.5% of said they had been through a divorce.       

Source: Ifeng
 

Related Links
Love and Marriage in Modern China: Survey Reveals Latest Trends
The Changing Concepts of Love and Marriage in China Over 3 Decades
China’s Marriage Crisis: 5000 Divorces a Day!

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Keywords: Divorce rates in China

7 Comments

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Oct 19, 2016 03:06 Report Abuse

mickeyg

Living in China now for over 6 years I have seen and heard most things, Chinese men are basically rude , self centered , poor lovers , treat their wives like there mothers (NOT ALL) But EVERY married Chinese woman i have met comes out with these statements, My Husband Is BORING , he is just wholly concerned with making money , To a Chinese guy , Money solves everything, When I taught Uni , for 6 semesters I got my students to do on street surveys , one topic was "Would u date or marry a foreigner"? in 2012 was the last one i conducted , 50% of respondents would date or marry a foreigner. BUT in contrast , many foreigners (guys_ would date a Chinese girl, But western women rarely would date a Chinese guy. Many Chinese wives still see or date their school classmates (even if they married someone else) In short , I think Chinese guys need to realize that women are not sexual replacements for their mothers , their own culture is stifling their personal relationships and the women know this , the men bury their heads in the sand.

Aug 30, 2014 22:52 Report Abuse

ToyJToy

the more modernized China becomes the higher the divorce rates will go. Reasons for getting married in previous 'traditional' generations have changed compared to todays genration and will continue to change. Im sure Divorce rates in America were probably lower 20 years ago in America too.

Feb 28, 2013 01:14 Report Abuse

Raunchy

I have lived in china 10 years and come here in the hope to find a Chinese wife, in this time I have been here, I have had 2 or 3 long term girlfriends one for 2 years and others for a year and some short term girls for no more than 3 months, they have mostly ended become of money, in the end the girl just ask for a large sum of money the first girls ask me for over 500,000 RMB and that was not to marry that was just to show her that I had in fact loved her as she put it "if you cannot give me money you done love me" other girls have ask me for unspecified sums of money at times and use the phrase "if you show me your money I can see you love me" the last girlfriend I had for 6 weeks ask me for bride price of 1 million RMB she told me she did not want me to pay it but, if I had got her pregnant then maybe her family will let it go, others told me, I would end up paying every pay to her family for the rest of my life.. I told her if she wants me to respect her custom then she need to respect mine, which is she need to pay me 5 million RMB for my Semen, as I am rear Over the years I have been asked a set list of questions like they are all from the same person, eg. how much money do you make, how much money do you have in the bank, do you own a house and how many do you have and own, will you stay in china alone time (this is a loaded questions as if you say yes a long time and she wants a visa then you are out of luck, if you say a short time and she want to stay in china you’re out of luck if you say you don’t know then she will think you’re not stable) other things they ask is how many times have you had sex and how many girls friends have you had, how much money did you give the last girlfriend you date, can you show me a print out of your bank statement, and give me a list of all the emails , QQ, phone numbers of every girl you ever date in the last 10 years, and don’t forget to tell me all your passwords of every email, QQ, phone chat system and bank you ever have. I have come to a conclusion there is no love in marriage in china, I love living in china as I can work and make money spend it on myself in the things I like but I will probably never have a wife here endless she loves me for me, not for what I have or can give her . A girl told me, she makes mistakes but never tells a lie, but foreigner all lie and never makes mistakes.

Feb 27, 2013 23:53 Report Abuse

LAR

Hi Raunchy, Un*******believable bro!!!!!!!! Find a nice Thai gal or Filipina!!!!!!! Many of them are quite attractive and will not submit a guy to all the BULLSHIT 3rd degree questioning!!!!!!! Of course, they will have questions..but nothing like the "grilling" that you mentioned! :o!! Regarding the ending comments from the girl..what a joke!! Ha!!

Mar 11, 2013 14:25 Report Abuse

mickeyg

yes , i agree , once you get a Chinese girl , they are into all your personal stuff , reading emails , QQ , text messages , it never ends , they even ask you "who was that on the phone" and THEY ALL LIE !!

Mar 17, 2013 14:36 Report Abuse

13david

Is it the case in terms of marriage that when the west sneezes China catchs a cold? It's stating the 'bleeding obvious' to say that marriage has changed over even the last 20 years. back beyond that there were still arranged marriages. This article only mentions people between 22 and 35. It is necessary to also examine the over 35s. As far as I can see money is the main factor influencing Chinese marriage. Remember men have to get to the cities to earn enough money to return to their village to marry. No mention of this. If a man is rich enough it is almost obligitory to have a mistress or more. I heard of one who had 3 mistresses all in flash apartments with credit cards supplied.The wife was home looking after the house and children and accepting her role. No divorce stastics there. Wo betide women who don't have children. They are usually quickly divorced the family circle sees to that. Whilst the burgeoning middle class shower themselves with "throw away" consumer goods from the west, throw away marriages will/ have followed

Feb 25, 2013 07:29 Report Abuse