The situation of Chinese brides demanding extremely high dowry prices is causing headaches for local authorities in finding solutions to encourage marriage.
In a move to address this issue, in February this year, Chongyi County in Jiangxi Province introduced a financial support policy in 10 areas of society. One of these policies is to support bride prices of no more than 39,000 yuan (about 134 million VND).
This new local policy has sparked fierce debate in the country and raised doubts about its effectiveness.
China's skewed gender ratio makes brides set high demands when marrying. Illustration: SCMP
Meanwhile, a woman named Yu Fei found a more interesting solution. The divorced woman, who is raising two children from a previous marriage, decided to live with her second husband before accepting his dowry.
In her village of Lingang, the average bride price is between 700,000 and 800,000 yuan (about 2.4 to 2.7 billion VND), much higher than in most other places in China.
The gender imbalance has created fierce competition in the marriage market, increasing the amount of money the groom's family must pay the bride's family before marriage, said Hu Mingliang, a local official.
A young woman who is "in demand" can ask for a dowry of up to hundreds of thousands of yuan, or even up to one million yuan (equivalent to 34.5 billion VND).
Yu said that the inflationary competition is not only on the groom’s side, but also on the bride’s family’s part to “save face”. “Some parents think that if that woman receives a dowry of 680,000 yuan, my daughter should receive 720,000 yuan.”
Yu decided to still ask for a dowry from her husband because she also has two sons. Although her ex-husband had provided financial support, the potential cost of her sons’ future weddings was still a significant concern. The dowry she received from her second husband could help cover those costs.
Yu hopes that by accepting a lower dowry, she will help set a precedent to lower expectations from brides' families.
“Lv Yichen and I are both in our 30s and looking for a partner to share our lives with. Before we got married, I told him that my bride price was 120,000 yuan (US$18,000). We decided to live together first to see if we could get along. If everything went well, he would pay the bride price,” Yu shared.
However, many people think that the "price" that this woman offered is too illusory. "She remarried, has 2 children from a previous marriage, but 'only' took 120,000 yuan? Oh my god!" - one person exclaimed.
“It's scary that 120,000 yuan is considered low,” another commented.
“Only pay the bride price if it suits you? Is this a 'delivery and then payment' kind of thing? This is getting more and more ridiculous!”
“Why not do a three-year payment plan, with small payments each day? That way, no one loses out. It gets funnier and funnier!” one person joked.
According to Dang Duong (VietNamNet)
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