Can Marriage Law Reforms Reverse China’s Demographic Crisis?
Tracing 75 years of Chinese marriage law evolution, how pool shed its dropout and gang pastime stereotype, an artist’s experiment with AI beyond its generative functions, and more
Hello TWOC readers!
Amid the pounding bass and swaying crowds at a music festival in Xinjiang earlier this month, one small portable room offered something far more permanent than a souvenir tote or a hangover: a marriage certificate. Set up by the local government, the pop-up marriage office invited couples, riding the high of the festival, to make it official right then and there. All they needed was their national ID, which they had already used to buy tickets and check into the venue.
This unusual setup was made possible by a major shift in China’s marriage rules that took effect in May, scrapping the old requirement to bring a household registration booklet and return to one’s hometown to wed. Now, young couples can say “I do” at any registration office nationwide with just their ID. It’s part of a broader government effort to boost the country’s plummeting marriage and birth rates, as China’s population dipped for the first time in decades in both 2022 and 2024.
Whether this backstage-turned-wedding-hall approach will actually move the needle remains to be seen, but reforms to China’s marriage law have long mirrored the country’s evolving social reality.
Read on to discover how marriage law reforms since the 1950s continue to redefine love and commitment for Chinese couples today.
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