Family Law

Divorce Rates Increasing in China

By ckramer

In China, divorce may still come with a social stigma attached, but more and more recently, new economic conditions and changing social relationships are leading to record highs in divorce in the country, according to CNN.

Take, for example, the case of TV actress Tang Yi, who has been married to her film director husband for a decade. She did not get along with her in-laws, and told CNN in an interview that he had been taking their side in disputes. ?He was a sort of mamma?s boy,? she said.

Making a choice that in the past would have perhaps been avoided, she ultimately decided to divorce her husband. The free-spirited woman followed the trend that is on the rise in China: divorce.

A report from China?s Ministry of Civil Affairs said that in 2009, one out of every five marriages in China ended in a divorce. That totals 1.71 million couples who decided to untie the marriage knot. This figure represents a rise of 10.3 percent from 2008, and the numbers indicate a rising trend.

The ratio of divorces totals about 1.85 per thousand people. This presents quite a rise from the 1985 numbers, which logged only 0.4 divorces per thousand people in China.

Chinese culture, traditionally, has worked against divorce as a practice, according to CNN. The article quotes an ancient proverb which says that newlyweds should ?be married until your hair turns white.?

Traditionally, women who marry more than once are looked upon with disdain, and divorced women are frowned upon and considered disgraceful. There?s even an insulting nickname for divorced women: ?old shoe.? It has long been easier in Chinese culture for a man to make it through a divorce less scathed than a woman.

Recent legal changes have had an impact on the culture of divorce in China, which for the last half century has undergone some dramatic shifts.

In 1950, the Chinese government enacted a marriage law that banned arranged marriages but allowed divorce only after mediation and counseling failed. There was a surge of divorces to correct the culture of arranged marriages.

1981 saw a new law that granted a divorce if there was evidence of an affair, domestic violence or addiction to drugs or gambling. One member of the couple could ask for a divorce, even if the other didn?t want it.

As recently as seven years ago, a couple needed written permission from their employers or from their neighbors to get a divorce. People stayed in dead marriages to avoid the social stigma.

But in 2003, a new law dropped the divorce-by-committee requirement and simplified the divorce procedure.

Divorce got easier, women became more empowered, and the cultural shift continued. Only children raised in the 80s have a different view of marriage. They?re better educated, they?re more economically independent and they have a stronger sense of self, which are characteristics that can lead to shorter marriages.

Staid Chinese officials are alarmed at some of the fickleness of young couples in marriage. The ?blitz marriage? is a phenomenon in which couples marry quickly, only to find that they?ve made the decision too hastily. Some legislators have pushed forward a cooling off period that gives couples time to work out marriage problems before divorcing.

Linda Jaivin, an expert on Chinese culture, says that the shift in marriage culture mirrors that of the culture as a whole. ?People have to rely on themselves to feed and clothe and house themselves. They can?t really rely on the state to look after them, and people have become practical in that way.?

Even as divorce increases, there is no shortage of weddings in China. In 2009, 24 million people got married.

Full post as published by The Divorce Blog on July 09, 2010 (boomark / email).