How Africa
The Chinese authorities are trying to end the increasingly extravagant marriage culture in the country. They argue that this was against “socialist core values” and reflected “declining morality”.
Chinese marriages have rituals and traditions developed for thousands of years. But authorities have said that modern ceremonies are out of control, with competition between couples leading to increasingly lavish celebrations, expensive gifts and extreme rituals to “scramble” the newlyweds.
The tradition of hazing, originally thought of as a way of driving out evil spirits, has become particularly extreme in recent years, with brides and grooms, bridesmaids and bridesmaids subject to sometimes violent jokes.
In November, a man in southern China was hospitalized after being hit by a car while trying to escape the hazing ritual of his friends.
The South China Morning Post said it had been tied to an electric pole and beaten with a bamboo strip.
Families in rural areas also set huge “bridal prices,” money paid to the bride’s family by the husband’s parents.
After a national conference held on Friday in Jinan, eastern China, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said it wanted to create a “simple and appropriate marriage etiquette” that advocates “diligence and savings, and ‘opposes extravagance and waste,’ said a ministry official, Yang Zongtao, in an interview broadcast on national television on Sunday that the government “would set guidelines on the wedding process and the amount of gifts. cash, “according to the South China Morning Post.
