Blue book reflects marriage trends

BEIJING, Jan. 7 -- The 2008 blue book the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences released last Thursday has a chilling message for Chinese men - some of them will have to wait quite a long time to find a spouse in the years ahead.

Two grooms hug their brides during a group wedding of farmer workers in southwest China''s Chongqing Municipality, Nov. 2, 2007. Some 46 couples of farmer workers attended the group wedding. (Xinhua Photo)

The book on marriage trends of the Chinese found a drop in marriages in the country and an increase in the average age of first-time brides and grooms. Also high were divorce and remarriage rates.

Under the Marriage Law, men over 22 and women over 20 are legally eligible for marriage. The law also encourages young people to marry late. Those first-time brides who are older than 25 and first-time grooms who are over 23 are granted an extra week to the three-day wedding leave.

People in the country are waiting longer to get married. The first-time marriage age for men rose to 28.2 years and 26.1 years for women in 2006, ranking the capital second after Shanghai, where men, on average, tied the knot at 31.1 years and women at 28.4 years.

This increase has been associated with, among other factors, greater acceptance of cohabitation without marriage, as well as more education and economic independence for women. The young generation brought up in single-child families tend to be precocious about sex while cautious about marriage.

People are marrying later because it is simply too expensive to do so earlier. Usually norms dictate that young people should establish independent homes upon marriage. As a result, some marry late in life because they do not have the financial resources to support a household. They have to save up a lot of money for a house, a car, education for the children, and daily living expenses.

About 150 years ago, British demographer, Thomas Malthus, called it the Principle of Population. He basically said people in developed societies marry only when the economy is doing well, and they have enough money to buy a house, afford education for their children, and the life style they want to have. If they cannot, then they will delay marriage until they can. He considered this an important mechanism to control population growth when the economy can no longer support the population.

The soaring age of first-time Chinese grooms, however, is not an exact explanation for Malthus' theory.

Some Chinese men will have to marry late not of their own choosing. There will be more young males in the next five to 10 years than the fairer sex. That fact could be a chilling message for men who face the prospect of having to remain single for some time.