Earlier this week, news of a pregnant woman forced into abortion by her father after her husband-to-be could not afford her bride price became trending on Sina Weibo. The father of the bride wanted him to pay 200,000 RMB (30,680 US$) to get married to his daughter.
Bride prices are a long-standing tradition in China. A ‘bride price’ is an amount of money or goods paid by the groom’s family to the bride’s family upon marriage. Since China’s gender imbalance has made it more difficult for men to find a bride, the ‘bridewealth’ prices have gone up drastically. This holds especially true for the poorer, rural areas in China.
CCTV’s TV programme News 1+1 explores the bride price phenomenon in their programme about the ‘price of love’.
According to CCTV, the bride price phenomenon has changed significantly over the past fifty years. During the 1950s, the ‘bridewealth’ would mostly consist of some material items such as a thermos bottle or bedding. In later decades, this changed to more costly things such as furniture, radio’s, watches, or a sewing machine.
But in the rural areas of contemporary China, the bride price is now all about hard cash. In some places, like in Shandong province, it is common for the bride’s family to ask for more than 100,000 RMB (15,340 US$) before their daughter marries – a staggering figure for average rural households in Shandong province.
According to sociologist Zhang Yi (张翼), who was interviewed by CCTV, rising bride prices have three major reasons. The first is China’s gender imbalance, that has caused a surplus in men, making it statistically more difficult for them to find a wife. The second reason has to do with the population division in China – the majority of China’s single, young men live in the rural areas, whereas the majority of China’s single young women live in the bigger cities. It has caused a highly competitive marriage market, where the bride’s families can ask for a high price. The third reason is the growing trend of the so-called “bride price culture”, where many families now feel a low bride price means losing face – if one’s daughter or future wife is ‘too cheap’ it is generally seen as a bad thing, both by the bride’s side as the groom’s.
According to Zhang Yi, is is highly unlikely that bride prices will go down in the decade to come.
On Weibo, not all netizens seem convinced that CCTV’s conclusion about the sky-high bride prices is realistic: “I’m from the countryside, but I’ve never heard about sky-high bride prices,” one netizen comments.
Another Weibo user says: “Where I’m from, the bride price is used to take back home and is considered the “start-up capital” (启动资金) for the new family.”
Some netizens see the sky-high bride prices as a serious problem: “Authorities should standardise bride prices, based on the average income of the locals. Whoever exceeds the standardised price should be punished by law as a human trafficker,” one netizen writes.
– By Manya Koetse
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