Tens of thousands of
Chinese couples queued in front of marriage registration offices
around the country Wednesday to legitimize their wedding as China's
new marriage registration regulations take effect on Oct. 1,
China's National Day.
Beginning Wednesday,
couples in China can tie the knot without a health examination or a
letter from their employers testifying their unmarried
status.
All the marriage
registration departments in China are ordered to stay at work, for
the first time, during the national week-long holiday in
preparation for a possible marriage wave sparked by the new rules,
said Zhang Mingliang, director-general of the grassroots
governments and community development department with the Ministry
of Civil Affairs.
"Marriage registration
offices around the country should carefully adjust their working
hours to ensure a smooth process of the marriage registration,"
said Zhang, who is in charge of the registration work in the
country.
Analysts say the number
of couples registering for marriage may rise to a record high
during the holiday as the new rules further relax constraints on
marriage.
At 5:00 in the morning,
dozens of couples began waiting outside registration offices in
Xuhui District, Shanghai.
"We hope the National
Day will add to our happy day," smiled 28-year-old Pang Ying, who
with her Japanese boyfriend Tanino Takayoshi became Shanghai's
first couple registering their marriage under the new
rules.
In major cities like
Shanghai and Guangzhou, all the wedding banquets in luxury hotels
during the week-long holiday are booked out for
weddings.
Local officials said
more than 100 couples in Chongqing,
the biggest city in west China, had telephoned local marriage
registration offices in advance saying they would register on
Oct.1.
In China's capital
Beijing, marriage registration offices have been told by the
municipal authorities to "stay at work as long as couples are
queuing for registration" on the National Day.
"We feel really happy to
get married without a letter from our employers testifying our
marriage status or a forced health examination," said Wu Wei, as he
and his girlfriend became the 84th couple to register their
marriage at a registration office in Furong District, Changsha,
capital of central China's Hunan
Province.
Under the new
regulations, couples need only show their ID cards and residency
papers and sign a document stating they are not married or related
to register their marriages, thus stopping the involvement of
danwei or the state-owned working units, which was
previously essential.
Zhang, a civil affairs
official, said the new marriage regulations and its working norms
must be obeyed by officials.
"Those who force
prospective newlywed couples to have health examinations, or charge
extra fees will face severe punishment," he warned.
Analysts say the
development of the private economy and the increasing floating
population make it impossible to continue the old requirements,
which were adopted in 1994.
The old requirements
were suitable only in the old planned economy era when a person's
work unit controlled many aspects of people's life including
housing, health care and children's education.
Requirements waived in
the new marriage registration rules also include the demand forcing
people to undergo health examinations before they wed.
Among the queues are
also those couples who want to end their love.
"We came here because we
cannot continue our relationship," said a young man who just had
his divorce registered in Xining, capital of northwest China's Qinghai
Province.
"We don't want to wait
for others to mediate our relations," he said.
In the past, a couple
had to wait for a month mediation from civil affairs departments
before getting divorced, a requirement also abolished in the new
marriage registration regulations.
However, migrant couples
will still have to apply to marry or divorce in either spouse's
home province, rather than register in a third place.
The number of Chinese
registering for marriage dropped from some 8.92 million couples in
1998 to 7.86 million last year, according to the All-China Women's
Federation. But the number of divorces has remained stable in the
past five years, at about 1.2 million each year.
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(Xinhua News Agency October 2, 2003)