BEIJING, March 4 (Reuters)-In recent years, the issue of high-priced bride price has once again become the focus of discussion. Recently, "it is suggested that rural areas should carry out low bride price and zero bride price", "experts say that zero bride price does not conform to traditional wedding customs" and "Civil Affairs Bureau responded to the announcement of bride price report" … … Topics such as hot search have been posted, which has triggered heated discussions on the Internet.
suggestionCarry out "low bride price" and advocate "zero bride price"
At the National People’s Congress in 2022, many NPC deputies suggested curbing the sky-high bride price and rectifying the high-priced bride price in rural areas. In the No.1 Document of the Central Committee in 2023, the "high-priced bride price" was named again. Recently, the issue of high-priced bride price is still a topic of concern to many deputies.
Hejian city, Hebei Province is the first batch of national experimental areas for the reform of marriage customs. Recently, Shi Bingqi, deputy to the National People’s Congress and secretary of the Party branch of Dazhuang Village, hejian city, Hebei Province, said that he was preparing a proposal to implement the "low bride price" in rural areas, the content of which was to implement it. Advocate "zero bride price" on the basis of "low bride price".
"I visited the survey and found that our rural bride price is 100,000 yuan, some 180,000 yuan, and even some 300,000 yuan. The bride price is relatively high. Farmers mainly rely on working and farming to earn income, and they can’t bear the burden of bride price of more than 100,000. " He said.
Regarding the reasons for the "high-priced bride price" in rural areas, Shi Bingqi believes that, first, girls have a good face, and she thinks that the high face of the bride price is greater; second, some girls think that a higher bride price will increase their sense of security after marriage; and third, comparing with each other has caused the "high-priced bride price" to become more and more fierce.
He believes that the implementation of "low bride price" can be started from these aspects. First, the "Village Regulations and People’s Covenant" is formulated, and "zero bride price" is advocated to achieve "low bride price". The second is to set up a red and white Council to play its role. The third is the manufacturing environment.
"For example, our village has built a red event hall, which is always implemented" ‘ Low bride price ’ Young people who get married in the red event hall are free to use, only get a food fee, and give them some recognition and encouragement. Right ‘ Zero bride price ’ We recommend them to our superiors to attend the collective wedding in the city and give them higher honor. "
Ding Zuohong, member of Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and chairman of the board of directors of Yuexing Group, also suggested that family life education and marriage education should be introduced into family education and school classrooms, and young people should be actively guided to establish a correct concept of mate selection, so that the sunshine concept of "marriage and childbearing at the right age, excellent children and excellent children" can be deeply rooted in people’s hearts.
At the same time, Ding Zuohong believes that it is necessary to build a fertility-friendly social environment. It is suggested to build a group of public service platforms for making friends and marriage with high integrity, which are convenient for unmarried young people to participate in; Study on bringing the cost of childbirth into the social security system in an all-round way, explore the introduction of new models such as social special funds, improve the flexible working system, and so on.
Is it feasible to implement the "zero bride price"?
Zhongxin Finance noted that in recent years, many places have introduced policies to "limit the height" of bride price. For example, as the first batch of national experimental areas for the reform of marriage customs, Ningling County, Henan Province generally incorporated the provisions of marriage and funeral customs into village rules and regulations, and advocated that the bride price should not be higher than 30,000 yuan. Some places advocate not exceeding 10,000 yuan, and some places advocate no bride price or less bride price. So, is it feasible to carry out no bride price?
According to the nine-faction news report, Gan Mantang, a professor of sociology at Fuzhou University, believes that the bride price, as a part of the traditional wedding custom, is not only inconsistent with the traditional wedding custom (culture), but its feasibility remains to be considered.
"When we curb the high-priced bride price, we can’t go to the other extreme, and a moderate bride price is also necessary." He said.
Gan Mantang analyzed that the problem of "bride price" is not the main reason why rural young men can’t afford to get married. The deeper reason lies in the backwardness of rural education and other resources, which forced rural marriageable young men to buy houses in the county, thus bringing huge economic pressure for marriage. "However, there is now a high-priced bride price that exceeds the scope of the man’s commitment, which makes young men daunting. This should be curbed."
Judging from the information published in many places, by taking a series of measures, unhealthy trends such as high-priced bride price and big-scale handling have been effectively curbed.
A few days ago, the relevant person in charge of the Social Affairs Department of the Civil Affairs Department of Henan Province said that on the whole, Henan Province has solidly promoted the reform of marriage customs, and the stereotypes such as high-priced bride price, high-priced gifts, extravagant and wasteful activities have been effectively curbed, and the reform work has made progress in stages.
Expert: To manage high-priced bride price, we need to clarify three pairs of relationships.
Wang Defu, an associate professor at China Rural Governance Research Center of Wuhan University, wrote an article saying that the governance of high-priced bride price is a systematic project.
Wang Defu believes that there are three pairs of relationships that need to be clarified about the issue of high-priced bride price:
The first is "small bride price" and "big bride price". "Small betrothal gift", in a narrow sense, is a betrothal gift given by a man to his wife’s family. The customs vary from place to place, and the content and the form of the gift are different. The "big bride price" can be regarded as the man’s family expenditure including all the marriage costs, and the most typical one is the wedding car and the wedding room.
The second is "bride price competition" and "marriage competition". The gender imbalance caused by economic differentiation and population mobility, followed by regional marriage squeeze and marriage competition, are the deep structural factors that promote the rise of bride price.
The third is "engagement risk" and "marriage risk". One of the original meanings of the bride price is the guarantee of concluding the engagement. In the era of gender inequality, it is a risk-prevention means for the woman to hurt herself when the man may dissolve the engagement at will. Now, the nature of bride price has changed fundamentally. It is hoped that the bride price will not only guarantee the engagement, but also guarantee a lifetime of happiness.
"For economically underdeveloped remote and poor areas and some areas where bride price competition customs exist, high-priced bride price will aggravate the outbreak of regional marriage problems and overdraw the risk prevention ability of farmers’ families." He believes that we need to do something to make the price paid by individuals and society smaller and smaller. (Zhongxin Finance)
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