The number of international marriages in Shanghai has increased to
almost seven times the figure from 1980, according to a local
study.
A
study jointly conducted since last year by the Shanghai Civil
Affairs Bureau and East China Normal University showed that the
number of locally registered international marriages - referring to
Shanghai people marrying foreigners or non-mainland Chinese - has
jumped from fewer than 400 in 1980 to 2,705 last year.
Ding Jinhong - director of the university's Population Research
Institute, a major participant in the year-long study - said: "The
increase (of international marriages) on the whole ties in well
with Shanghai's continuous opening-up to the outside world, as well
as with increasing cross-cultural communication."
In
a report published in late May, the study authors said more than 40
percent of the 21,015 mixed marriages registered in the city
between 1996 and 2002. Japanese made up for about 40 percent
overall, overseas Chinese and those from Hong Kong, Macao or Taiwan
made up for nearly 38 percent, while people from the United States
accounted for 6.3 percent, Australians for 5.4 percent and
Europeans for 3.9 percent.
Nearly 89 percent of international marriages in Shanghai between
1996 and 2002 involved local women whose average age was 31
years.
The average age of the more than 2,330 local men involved in the
international marriages between 1996 and 2002 was 36.7 years.
About 24 percent of the local wives had had a college education,
compared with nearly 48 percent of their overseas husbands.
Some locals seem to attach little importance to such differences
with their overseas spouses, according to Ding.
The desire for economic gain or the ability to go abroad is
sometimes more of a factor than any real love and mutual
understanding, he said.
"I
would say such 'loveless' marriages still exist here to a
substantial extent, though the number is on the decline," said
Ding.
However, Shanghai people overall have adopted a more "rational"
attitude towards such international marriages, said officials of
the Shanghai Civil Affairs Bureau.
Jacqueline Zhou, a local company executive who married her French
husband four years ago, said: "I don't think a marriage without
love can last long... Personally, though I didn't expect to marry a
foreigner at all, we have been just fine, and even my view of
Westerners has changed a lot due to our marriage."
(China Daily June 9, 2003)