According to census statistics, the "single"
population has exceeded one million in Beijing and Shanghai presently. In 1990,
however, the number of single men and women in the 30-50 age bracket was only
about 100,000 in Beijing. Experts pointed out that China's third "single" wave
is approaching.
The first "single" wave of the People's Republic of China occurred in the
1950s. In an era of revolution, many people had no time or energy to think of
love and marriage, and some people chose to accept marriage arranged by their
parents. Issuance of China's first Marriage Law in May 1950 consequently stirred
up a wave of divorce that flooded the entire country.
The second "single" wave came in the late 1970s. After the Cultural
Revolution, numerous learned youths returned to cities and speedily formed a
huge group of single men and women in their late twenties or thirties. Most of
them were women, because many learned men chose to marry a local girl but
learned women from big cities found it hard to accept young men in local areas
and would rather remain single.
In contrast, today's "single" wave is mainly composed of high-income busy
professional men and women 28 to 38 years old with lots of diversions and high
expectations of life. To remain single is becoming a prominent value orientation
and a preference of life for individuals instead of a choice based on inferior
personal terms.
Love and marriage of the young in small and medium-sized cities around China
has not spawned so-called marriage crises. In those cities, people feel less
pressure from life and competition. They are used to a steady-going world and
would naturally hope for marriage and stable life. They also face fewer
temptations accordingly, and they do not have such high-sounding, sometimes
flaky, dreams as youths in big cities, but have more down-to-earth
goals.
