The financial crisis hasn't dampened young couples' enthusiasm for getting married. Quite the contrary: Instead of putting off their wedding plans, in many cases, they've hastened their step.
Zhang Dandan, a 25-year-old Beiijing resident, plans to tie the knot with her 26-year-old *fiancé, working in the IT industry, on May 10. Instead of hiring a wedding planner, the couple decided to design their wedding banquet themselves.
"I feel it's the right time right now," said Zhang, a new-media record company manager. "We have strong feelings for each other and doesn't want to wait. Admittedly, we're not financially prepared at this age, but I believe getting married will benefit our economic situation and stimulates our careers."
Actually, the May Day Holiday somehow *ignited another outbreak of marriage fires across the country.
This year has seen a big jump in the number of weddings. Wedding business reports put the number of marriages each year in China at about 10 million, according to China Daily.
Xie Jiewei, 26, an electrical engineer in Chongqing, married his 25-year-old girlfriend just a month ago. Xia said that living expenses had gone down a lot after the wedding.
For example, they saved nearly 2,000 yuan in rent and food. In addition, Xie said jokingly, they no longer have to pay for romantic dates or expensive Valentine's Day gifts.
Zhang, the manager, explains that, being married, she's no longer distracted by endless guessing games, emotional *fluctuations, or threats of breaking up: "This helps my career and it's essential for me to be able to make progress and avoid being laid off in this competitive world."
Still, many young people are delaying marriage. The Shanghai statistics for 2008 show the average marriage age for men at 32 and, for women, 29.
Some experts see marriage as a more stable social, economic structure than being single. Zhuang Yating, a Beijing love and marriage counselor and columnist, says, "My advice is, go ahead and marry if you have true feelings for each other and can still retain your sense of independence.
But I have to warn you, if you marry just for financial reasons, other problems will follow even if you've solved that one pretty well."
作者：XU WEIWEI, 21ST CENTURY STAFF
来源：21世纪英文报第803期
