Chinese Thrift Campaign Cuts Wedding Costs

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30155, 12 June 1963, Page 2

Chinese Thrift Campaign Cuts Wedding Costs

[By a Reuter Correspondent I

PEKING.

The Chinese authorities have launched a campaign to discourage traditional heavy spending on weddings and betrothal ceremonies. The campaign, the latest feature of a general movement to promote economy, thrift and saving, is being conducted through readers’ letters in newspapers and magazines.

Young couples, already discouraged from marrying too young, are now being told that it is a “reflection of bourgeois thought” to want to spend a lot of money on their weddings and that they should save every cent they can for their future life together. Apart from the actual cost of a wedding, the campaign is aimed at cutting out expensive wedding gifts from the couple’s friends, and gifts given as a down - .

A typical letter published recently by the Communist newspaper “Peking Daily." ! said: “A wedding is an occasion for rejoicing and it is, quite all right for friends to send presents. But they should not send too many. “Only recently, a couple in our organisation got married and friends and neighbours sent them gifts valued at more than 200 yuan (there are nearly seven yuan to £ 1 sterling). Another couple received more than 20 mirrors as wedding presents Altogether. the mirrors were enough to go more than twice round the walls of the room in which they lived. I feel this is too much. It is better to be economical." Dowries The campaign has shown that the old custom of the bride’s parents asking for large dowries in the form of money or gifts is still fairly prevalent, especially in rural areas. All the letters published

11 on this subject have been : j against the practice, mainly 'lon the grounds of economy • | But it also, it is explained H contradicts the officially en- ;' couraged attitude towards ' love and marriage Correspondents argue that a girl , who accepts numerous be- . trothal gifts “idegenerates herself”: the girl’s family who demand them show , “bourgeois moradity”; and , a man who wants to give them “looks dowm on , women” and is ignorant of the principle that “true love can never be bought.” One letter given much prominence, put forward the view that the 'aim of marriage in modern China is to , “run production in unison .■for the rest of one’s life" Betrothal gifts and dowries are therefore not fitting to Communist society “Recently, a few couples in our village got married." the correspondent said. “Most of them had economical weddings and their life since has been comparatively satisfactory. But there were individual cases where the

bride's family demanded many betrothal presents from the groom, sometimes totalling as much as several hundred yuan. Some families have even been forced to borrow money to buy such gifts.”

Mother's Demands

The case of a young country girl named Sui-Lien (“Beautiful Lily”) who wrote to tell the “Peking Daily” her story is typical. “I was married last October,” she said. “Before the wedding my mother said to me: ‘Sui-Lien. it has not been easy for me to bring you up. So I must demand a lot of betrothal presents from your husband-to-be.’

“What would you like?” I asked. “‘A pair of gold bracelets, two trunks, a set of furniture, an overcoat, wine and fruit.’ ” she said. “When I heard this, I said to myself: ‘Mother is demanding all this because she has the old idea that her daughter must be offered as a commodity.’ “We are living in a new society and after our marriage we shall unite in helping each other in production and building socialism. We shall live together, love each other and support each other as equals. To demand so many betrothal presents and spend too much money on the wedding would impair our future life together. How could a woman of the New China do this? Thrift

“So I said to my mother: ‘As you are demanding so many gifts, how much do you actually want them to spend?’ She replied: ‘I do not mind If they want a daughter-in-law, they must pay for her It is nothing unusual. It has been the custom for years.’ "When the wedding was held. I asked nothing of my husband’s family. The wedding took place very economically. Since then, we have enjoyed living and working together. My mothei is very happy and privatelj tells me that she realises now that I was right” A similar campaign is being conducted against heavy spending on such traditional features of Chinese Life as funeral rites and harvest cele brations. The whole thrift movemen • appears to be having some success. A recent official report said that the amount ol money deposited in savings banks showed a steady rise in the first three months ol this year in all main cities and towns, and was appreciably higher than in the same period last year.