Chinese Online Class - Women in China embrace divorce as stigma eases

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Women in China embrace divorce as stigma eases

www.chinanews.cn 2005-10-08 14:24:03

(Source: NY Times)

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, if rare, social
phenomenon, the "flash divorce" (as well the "flash marriage"). Chinese
newspapers have carried accounts of young couples marrying in the
morning, arguing at midday and divorcing in the afternoon.
Chang Jie regards her short marriage as a foolish mistake. In September
2003, when she was 24, she married her boyfriend in Beijing the day
before she left for a job more than 1,000 miles away in the southern city
of Macao. For four months, the new couple communicated mostly by e-mail.
When Ms. Chang returned to Beijing in January 2004, her husband asked for
a divorce. They had spent only a few days together as a married couple.
"He told me he didn't want to do this anymore," recalled Ms. Chang. "It
shocked me." But she added: "It was better to end it. I think a lot of
young people end their marriages in two years."
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 50 percent. Even so, divorce is rising in rural
migrant families where a husband working away from home may only see his
wife once a year.
Here in coastal Guangdong Province, a densely populated manufacturing hub
that is one of the wealthiest regions in China, a local newspaper
recently carried an article suggesting that Sept. 30, the eve of the
weeklong National Day holiday, would be a "lucky" day to get divorced. It
was a twist on the Chinese tradition of getting married on fortuitous
holidays.
For many older couples trapped in loveless marriages, the new law has
meant an exit without the shame of seeking permission. But Ms. Lu, who
runs the Women and Gender Study Center, said younger couples were often
less concerned about shame and more interested in whether the marriage
has enough money and sex. If a person is unhappy over these issues, he or
she is less likely than prior generations to simply bear it.

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