The Chinese government has offered financial incentives to matchmakers who help rural bachelors get married, to boost the country’s marriage rate.
According to the Hong Kong South China Morning Post (SCMP) on the 28th, local authorities from Guangdong to Shanxi provinces announced that they would reward matchmakers who introduce women to men over 30 years of age and see them through to marriage in their villages, with 600 to 1,000 yuan (approximately $94 to $157).
Specifically, the Shanxi Village Committee in China has decided to pay 1,000 yuan to matchmakers who successfully arrange marriages from the 1st of this month. It is reported that about 40 unmarried men aged between 25 and 40 live in this village, which consists of approximately 270 households.
Currently, China continues to experience a low birth rate as young people avoid marriage. According to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics of China on the 17th, the total population born by the end of 2023 was 9.02 million, falling below 10 million for the second consecutive year. The birth rate hit a record low at 6.39%.
In response, Chinese authorities have been rolling out various measures. Many cash incentives including childbirth encouragement funds, childcare allowance, and preferential benefits for home purchases have been included. This policy is in line with these measures, reflecting China’s chronic gender imbalance issue. As of 2021, the gender ratio in rural areas showed a more severe imbalance than in cities, with 108 men for every 100 women.
Yifu Shen, a population expert at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, pointed out that China’s ‘surplus men’ issue is prominent in rural areas where a strong preference for males prevails and women leave to find jobs in cities.
He further noted, “The bachelor crisis in rural areas cannot be solved with simple cash rewards,” and “The high youth unemployment rate also affects the low marriage rate.”
The SCMP reported that “Gen Z women born in the mid-1990s to early 2000s in China are significantly less willing to get married than their male counterparts,” and “In China’s Gen Z, there are 18.27 million more men than women, marking the largest gender imbalance across all age groups.”
By. Won Ji Lee
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