Unprecedented changes that have come about as a result of China's reform and opening-up have also seen a rising divorce rate becoming a prominent feature of life, a Chinese scholar explained to a forum in Beijing yesterday.

 

According to a report issued by the Ministry of Civil Affairs in mid-May, the divorce rate has been on the rise since 2002. A total of 1.785 million couples divorced in 2005, which is 120,000 more than the previous year. This is a divorce rate of 2.73 per thousand.

 

Chen Rongzhi, a scholar with the Overseas Chinese University in southeast China's Fujian Province, attributed the rise to the itinerant population at a forum on building harmonious families held by the All-China Women's Federation (ACWF).

 

"A great floating population occurs as people in rural areas move to cities and between cities for higher incomes, leading to more diversity among marriage partners," said Chen.

 

"A family member's migration creates greater chances to disrupt the stability of a family and a marriage," she said.

 

"China's traditional ideas are giving way to new ones, such as Internet dating, one-night stands or quick marriages," said a report by Tang Can, a scholar with Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

 

Tang described these new phenomena as the young generation's pursuit of "sensuous satisfaction" and they treated marriage less seriously than their parents, which tended to drive up the divorce rate.

 

However, the rising divorce rate also reflects a positive side, Chen said. The freedom to marry or divorce shows a more tolerant social atmosphere and respect for individuals.

 

China has more than 300 million families with two-thirds of them from rural areas, according to ACWF.

 

Families have undergone great changes in the past two decades due to many factors, said Chen, such as the aging society that put much pressure on families to take elderly relatives under the present social security system, and the one-child policy that has obviously altered the traditional multi-children family structure.

 

(Xinhua News Agency June 23, 2006)