China sees divorces up 17% in 1st quarter
By Liang Yiwen |
01:09 UTC+8 June 3, 2011
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
THERE were more than 465,000 divorce cases on Chinese mainland in the first three months of this year - over 5,000 a day.
According to statistics posted on the Ministry of Civil Affairs' website, the number of divorces from January to March increased 17.1 percent year on year.
"Marriage in China has entered a phase of uncertainty," Chen Yijun, a marriage and family researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told yesterday's People's Daily.
Less communication between husbands and wives and an increasing number of extramarital affairs were the big killers of marriage, she said.
On its website, the People's Daily said China's divorce rate had been rising steadily over the past seven years and averaged around 7.65 percent for the past five. Couples in the 22 to 35 age range accounted for the majority of cases. Couples aged 36 to 50 had relatively stable marriages, but there was an increasing rate of divorce among couples aged over 50.
Chen said the rise in the divorce rate reflected the increasing freedoms and choices in modern society.
The traditional Chinese marriage model had broken down amid the rapid transformation of Chinese society, she said.
In the past, people tended to associate divorce with low morality and there was more reliance on a spouse's income to support the family. Nowadays people were more financially independent.
She said pressure of work and frequent business trips meant couples were spending less time together, and there were also more opportunities to make new friends and relationships outside marriage.
However, bucking the national trend, Shanghai has reported a decrease in the number of divorces over the past three years.
The Shanghai Civil Affairs Bureau saw 37,334 couples divorce last year, compared with 38,772 in 2009. In contrast, a total of 128,532 couples were married in the city last year, the bureau said.
Bureau official Lin Kewu attributed the decrease to volunteer teams set up by the bureau to dissuade people from hasty divorce. About a third of couples who opted for counselling had given up plans to divorce after listening to advice from the teams consisting of lawyers, psychotherapists and social workers.
According to statistics posted on the Ministry of Civil Affairs' website, the number of divorces from January to March increased 17.1 percent year on year.
"Marriage in China has entered a phase of uncertainty," Chen Yijun, a marriage and family researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told yesterday's People's Daily.
Less communication between husbands and wives and an increasing number of extramarital affairs were the big killers of marriage, she said.
On its website, the People's Daily said China's divorce rate had been rising steadily over the past seven years and averaged around 7.65 percent for the past five. Couples in the 22 to 35 age range accounted for the majority of cases. Couples aged 36 to 50 had relatively stable marriages, but there was an increasing rate of divorce among couples aged over 50.
Chen said the rise in the divorce rate reflected the increasing freedoms and choices in modern society.
The traditional Chinese marriage model had broken down amid the rapid transformation of Chinese society, she said.
In the past, people tended to associate divorce with low morality and there was more reliance on a spouse's income to support the family. Nowadays people were more financially independent.
She said pressure of work and frequent business trips meant couples were spending less time together, and there were also more opportunities to make new friends and relationships outside marriage.
However, bucking the national trend, Shanghai has reported a decrease in the number of divorces over the past three years.
The Shanghai Civil Affairs Bureau saw 37,334 couples divorce last year, compared with 38,772 in 2009. In contrast, a total of 128,532 couples were married in the city last year, the bureau said.
Bureau official Lin Kewu attributed the decrease to volunteer teams set up by the bureau to dissuade people from hasty divorce. About a third of couples who opted for counselling had given up plans to divorce after listening to advice from the teams consisting of lawyers, psychotherapists and social workers.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
