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Marriages break down amid rising wealth
(chinadaily.com.cn/nytimes)
Updated: 2005-10-04 11:08 Divorce was once a dreaded fate for women in China. Now, many younger and
employed urban women like Ms. Cai view it as a civil right, which has helped
drive up divorce rates. One government study found that women had initiated 70
percent of divorce applications in Guangdong Province, where the number of
divorces increased by 52 percent in 2004.
Yuan Rongqin, a
psychotherapist in Guangzhou, said the number of people he has treated for
problems involving divorce has increased. [The New York
Times] | "In the past, traditional values were the
most important thing," said Yuan Rongqin , a psychotherapist in Guangzhou who
treats a growing number of people for marriage- and divorce-related problems.
"Now, individualism has taken over."
"People's idea about the concept of marriage is changing," said Lu Ying, a
lawyer who runs the Women and Gender Study Center at Zhongshan University in
Guangzhou, in an interview with the New York Times. "Instead of thinking of
having just one spouse for a lifetime, now they are thinking about the quality
of a marriage. If it doesn't work out, then they are quietly ending
it."
To a degree, China's rising divorce rate is typical for a developing
country that is rapidly modernizing and becoming more affluent.
But the increase has been sharp since October 2003, when the government
streamlined the process in response to citizens' complaints. It also dropped the
onerous requirement that couples needed approval from their employers. A process
that once felt like an inquisition now can take 10 minutes.
Overall, China's divorce rate, as figured by comparing the number of divorces
with the number of marriages in the same year, is about 19 percent, nearly five
times the 1979 rate. That is still far below the divorce rate in the United
States, which has been about 50 percent in recent years. Last year, the number
of divorces in China jumped 21 percent from 2003, with 1.6 million couples
splitting up.
Roughly 6 in 10 opted against a contentious court divorce and chose the fast,
noncontested divorce offered at government civil affairs offices. There, couples
need only a marriage certificate, identification card, photographs and a divorce
application.
The simplicity of the process has led to a new social phenomenon, the "flash
divorce" (as compared to the "flash marriage"). Chinese newspapers have carried
accounts of young couples marrying in the morning, arguing at midday and
divorcing in the afternoon.
Divorce is much more common in the more prosperous cities than in poorer
rural areas. In Beijing, for example, one study found that the divorce rate last
year was nearly 50 percent, the New York Times reported.
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