The city of Liaocheng, East China's Shandong Province holds its first group marriage ceremony on April 25, 2023, attended by 10 newlywed couples, as the country launches a?campaign against problems including exorbitant bride prices and extravagant wedding ceremonies. Photo: IC

 
Just ahead of the International Day of Families on Monday, the China Family Planning Association announced that it will be launching pilot projects in 20 cities to build a new-era marriage and childbearing culture, in order to vigorously create a child-bearing-friendly social environment.

The projects will focus on tasks including promoting marrying and having children at appropriate ages, encouraging parents to share child-rearing responsibilities, and curbing high "bride prices" and other outdated customs, said association officials during an event held in Guangzhou, South China's Guangdong Province on Thursday. The cities include Guangzhou and Handan in North China's Hebei Province. 

"These pilot regions are expected to take innovative and proactive measures to help foster childbearing-friendly atmospheres and contribute to advancing Chinese modernization with the support from the high-quality development of the population," said Yao Ying, a vice president of the association. 

In the past few years, China has made efforts to improve the social environment for marriage and child-bearing. In 2022, the China Family Planning Association launched a pilot project of a new culture of marriage and childbirth construction in 20 cities, including Beijing. 

In February, China unveiled its key policy document for 2023, vowing to launch a special campaign against problems including exorbitant "bride prices" and extravagant wedding ceremonies as part of efforts to strengthen the construction of public cultural-ethical standards in the country's rural areas. Subsequently, many provinces, cities and counties have responded to the call to advocate new-era marriage culture and investigate and deal with related issues.

The China Family Planning Association's pilot projects come as China announced decline in its population for the first time. There has been a decline in births since 2017 as well as a falling marriage rate, independent demographer He Yafu told the Global Times on Sunday.

The measures target important issues affecting the willingness to marry and have children, and they will help curb some of bad social customs through long-term efforts, observers noted.

With economic and social development, the Chinese younger generations' concept of marriage has undergone changes, He said, pointing out that the key to improve the culture of marriage and childbirth lies with young people. 

"The society needs to guide young people more on the concept of marriage and childbirth, and encourage young people to get married and have children," He said.

Indeed, efforts to improve society's marriage culture and environment will hedge against the possible negative effects of some of the demographic downturn, analysts noted.

He pointed out that population problems are chronic and that population declines will have little impact on China's economy and society in the short term. China is expected to introduce measures to reduce the cost of marriage and childbirth and vigorously create a childbearing-friendly social environment, he said.

As part of efforts to build a new era of marriage culture and encourage childbearing, civil affairs agencies in several cities announced that they will accept marriage registrations on May 20.

May 20 is one of the dates on which Chinese couples prefer to register their marriages, as "520" is pronounced close to "I love you" in Chinese.

The civil affairs bureau in Chengdu, Southwest China's Sichuan Province, announced on Friday that its marriage registry will remain open on May 20 and reminded couples preparing to register on that day to make appointments online in advance.

The city of Zhengzhou in Central China's Henan Province issued a notice requesting civil affairs bureaus to receive marriage registrations on that day. Marriage registration offices in all districts will be open for normal business on that day, the Zhengzhou Evening News reported.

In the past few years, civil affairs bureaus have also chosen to work overtime to handle marriage registrations on their days off during Valentine's Day, Qixi Festival (Chinese Valentine's Day) and other meaningful holidays. On these days, the number of couples registering their marriages has often far exceeded the usual level.

Although some netizens commented that the measure will have little impact on people with low willingness to marry and have children, He believes it is a measure for the convenience and benefit of the people.

A people-friendly measure like this can be useful in the long run to promote the willingness to marry and have children in society, he told Global Times.