3. LOVE MARRIAGE

In the feudal society of a few thousand years, the love and marriage of the Chinese have always been subject to many restrictions. Young men and women could not love freely and their marriage had to be decided by parents. Sons of higher social status and from rich families had to look for daughters of rich families. Daughters with low social status and of poor people had to marry poor people’s sons. Before marriage men and women could not see each other, less to talk to each other; after marriage, regardless of whether there is love divorce is all impossible. If the wife died, the husband could marry again. But if the husband died, even if the wife was very young she could not marry again. Therefore, in China, ‘family’ was always very stable, but this kind of stability needed to sacrifice individual’s feelings.

From the middle of the century, the situation of parents’ deciding on marriages has had a radical change. Young people can freely love, freely marry now. But traditional concepts about marriage still exist. When looking for mates, people still have to look at the social status of the partner. After marriage even if they are unhappy they still are not willing to divorce, fearing other’s ridicule and being looked down upon. Seniors’ romance will meet with opposition from children and people around. Different people still use different measures to suppress their own feelings.

Since the 90’s, along with the continuous development of economy, people’s thinking has gained a large degree of liberalization. There is no longer need to suppress one’s own feelings. It is possible to bravely pursue love and happiness. Therefore, there are more and more things like college students looking for peasant entrepreneurs, divorces, seniors getting married for the second time and so on, even practice of pre-nuptial agreement. You can say that eventually there have been changes to the conservative marriage concepts.