The Chinese marital concept is constantly changing. The traditional practice has already changed into modern marriage by free love. Furthermore, the number of divorcees is gradually increasing along with the change of the times. Now there is even the new phenomenon of "notarizing agreement about pre-marriage property". The reasons for this new phenomenon is, more than ten years after the development of China's market economy, today some people begin to possess rather considerable amount of private property.

According to investigation, in China, the economic conditions for modern marriages are: one, there are quite a large percentage of cases where one side has considerable liquid and non-liquid property but the other side is almost "without a penny". Two: among people that remarry, and among middle age and seniors, in most cases both sides have liquid and non-liquid property. Therefore, property begins to be an obstacle in the marital relationships---the side that has property or more property, often doubt the marriage intention of the other side, before marriage and even quite some time after marriage. This kind of psychological state naturally will affect the happiness of the marriage. And among people who remarry and seniors, the situation is even more complicated, because the issue of their property directly affects the interests of their respective children. Therefore, some people propose that, if you want to have a peaceful marital life, you have to deal with the respective property before marriage.

In the early 90s, in Guangzhou, there began to be people who chose to solve the problem with the method of "notarizing agreement concerning pre-marriage property". In Shanghai, 1994 saw the first instance of prenuptial agreement. Due to the media's influence, "notarization" quickly became a hot topic. But although the people who went to notary for consultation were many, the people who really went for notary were few. According to general information, those who go for pre-nuptial agreement are mainly white-collared people, owners of private enterprises and Taiwanese compatriots. In the early days, the people who wanted prenuptial agreements were mainly people who remarried, but now the majority is newly married white-collared people.

This kind of phenomenon shows that when Chinese begin to have private property that is worth watching, what is involved in a marriage becomes more and more complicated. The marital concept formed over a long period of time that regarded pre-marriage property as common property after marriage, to many couple who own property before marriage, which later break up, is no longer a manifestation of love, but a kind of headache, causing them to constantly live in pain. This is also one of the reasons for the appearance of the practice of prenuptial agreement.

Concerning the practice of notarizing "prenuptial agreement", the views from different quarters are not the same. Experts who endorse this kind of practice are of the opinion that "notarization" can prevent property disputes at the time of divorce; and furthermore, neither side can dodge the responsibility of child support on the pretext of being "poor". These experts think that "notarization" is a step forward in the Chinese marital system that has historical significance.