Millions decide marriage is not for them
By Claire Wang |
February 8, 2011, Tuesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
NEARLY 2 million Chinese couples ended their marriages last year, a 14 percent increase on 2009, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
Shanghai saw 37,759 couples divorce in 2010, ranking 25th among the country's 31 provincial areas on the mainland.
Sichuan Province topped the list with 169,294, while the Tibet Autonomous Region had the fewest, at 459.
Sichuan recorded the most divorces not only because of its large population, but also for its deep-rooted migrant culture, an analyst with the Sichuan Academy of Social Sciences told the Legal Daily newspaper.
Thousands of Sichuan natives have left their hometowns for rich coastal regions since the country launched its reform and opening up policy in the early 1980s.
The search for work meant that many young couples lived separate lives, with one working in the city while the other stayed home taking care of the children and the elderly, causing instability in their marriages.
Another factor was the introduction of a simpler divorce procedure in 2003 to better protect people's privacy and make the process more efficient. After the changed, divorce cases climbed 13.1 percent from 2002.
Before 2003, people filing for a divorce had to get a certificate from their employer or the residents' neighborhood committee where they lived. Some people decided to maintain their marriages for fear of exposing their private lives, Xu Anqi, a marriage expert, told the newspaper.
Now, if the couple agree on property division, they can get their divorce paper within half an hour at the local bureau of civil affairs.
But the process could take more than a month before the new policy was put into place, the report said.
Shanghai saw 37,759 couples divorce in 2010, ranking 25th among the country's 31 provincial areas on the mainland.
Sichuan Province topped the list with 169,294, while the Tibet Autonomous Region had the fewest, at 459.
Sichuan recorded the most divorces not only because of its large population, but also for its deep-rooted migrant culture, an analyst with the Sichuan Academy of Social Sciences told the Legal Daily newspaper.
Thousands of Sichuan natives have left their hometowns for rich coastal regions since the country launched its reform and opening up policy in the early 1980s.
The search for work meant that many young couples lived separate lives, with one working in the city while the other stayed home taking care of the children and the elderly, causing instability in their marriages.
Another factor was the introduction of a simpler divorce procedure in 2003 to better protect people's privacy and make the process more efficient. After the changed, divorce cases climbed 13.1 percent from 2002.
Before 2003, people filing for a divorce had to get a certificate from their employer or the residents' neighborhood committee where they lived. Some people decided to maintain their marriages for fear of exposing their private lives, Xu Anqi, a marriage expert, told the newspaper.
Now, if the couple agree on property division, they can get their divorce paper within half an hour at the local bureau of civil affairs.
But the process could take more than a month before the new policy was put into place, the report said.
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