According to the website of Hong Kong's South China Morning Post on August 10, Lizzie & middot; Ran is very satisfied with her life. The 29 year old unmarried doctor from central Hubei Province has a good income and spends his spare time gathering with friends or surfing the Internet at home.
But her mother was worried about her.
Ran said: 'my mother is very worried about me -- she thinks getting married and having children is a must in one's life. I don't think so -- marriage is not important to me. "
Ran said that she believes that marriage depends on fate, and she will not force on this issue.
It is reported that Ran's idea is typical among Chinese born after 1990. Because the great social and economic changes have overturned the tradition, this generation is not in a hurry to get married to a great extent. Researchers say this emerging 'single society' has an impact not only on individuals, but also on the whole country.
The report said that the change of this concept is obvious on social media. This change is also reflected in the steady decline in the marriage rate and the decrease in the absolute number of marriages.
According to the data of the National Bureau of statistics, China's marriage rate fell from 9.9 per 1000 in 2013 to 7.2 per 1000 in 2018. In 2013, 13.47 million couples registered for marriage, which decreased to 10.11 million last year.
Wang Jufen, a researcher on women's development at the school of social development and public policy of Fudan University, said that the decline in the marriage rate shows that Chinese women are more educated and economically independent.
Wang Jufen said: 'in many universities, there are more female undergraduates (than male undergraduates). More and more girls are pursuing master's or doctoral degrees. Therefore, women do not have to rely on men economically as in previous generations. "
However, Wang Jufen also said that a deep-rooted tradition explains why many white-collar women in big cities are still unmarried - women are still eager to find more educated or richer partners, and they are not willing to "go low" when looking for boyfriends.
The report points out that the expanding social security system has also reduced the need for young people to marry and form their own families.
GUI Shixun, a lifelong professor at the Institute of population studies of East China Normal University, said that in the past, couples formed families to let their children take care of them when they were old and bear the responsibility of continuing their family blood. They register for marriage because they plan to have children, or in many cases when they are already pregnant.
GUI Shixun said that nowadays, China's urban and rural social and medical insurance covers most residents, so marriage is no longer a necessity.
He said: "with the rapid development of China's society and economy, young people's concept of mate selection and marriage has changed."
He said: 'in the past, people thought that if there were no children, they would be unfilial to their parents. But now people think it doesn't matter without children. "