Should Same-Sex Marriage Be Legalized ?

Homosexuality has a long history in human civilization,and the population of gay people in China is not negligible. On January 30,a special wedding in Beijing provoked a firestorm of debate on the legalization of gay and lesbian marriage.The cause of all this controversy is that the couple who committed themselves to each other in a public wedding ceremony were two males. Official estimates released for the first time     

Are China's Young Women Reluctant to Get Married?

正According to a recent survey on marriage by a research center under the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Young League, those born between 1995 and 2009, known as Gen Z, aka the major group to walk down the aisle in the coming 10 years, displayed a decreasing interest in getting married. Further analysis revealed that female respondents were noticeably less willing to marry than men. Women reluctant to engage in marriage outnumber their male peers by 19.29 percent.     

The Mosuo Matriarchy

Ifirst heard about the Mosuomatrilineal society some yearsago, and it has intrigued meever since. The Mosuo people, abranch of the Naxi ethnic minor-ity, live near Lugu Lake, on the bound-ary of Sichuan and Yunnan provinces.Within Mosuo culture, marriage is un-conventional, by Chinese or any otherstandards, as women rule the roost inevery sense.It was in March this year that I finallytook a trip to Lugu Lake Town, deep inYunnan's woody mountains. I spent myfirst night at a Mosuo Family …     

Current Rural Medical Service in China

In contrast to the great changes that have taken place in the Chinese economy, China is confronting with a rural health crisis. Statistics shows that about 40-60% of the people in rural areas fail to see a doctor when they get sick simply because they cannot afford it and 70% of the people impoverished due to diseases. In the western part of the country, 60-80% of the patient farmers have to die at home. Part of the Chinese farmers has     

Speech by New Zealand-China Friendship Society National President Margaret Cooper (Excerpts)

Rewi Alley was a great man——a New Zealander who made a difference to many thousands of Chinese people.We are here today to reflect,remember and honour this man,acknowledge the work that he did in China during the sixty years that he lived with the people he loved,and celebrate the links that he established between our two countries.     

Rural Stars,Global Fans

Internet influencers from rural areas open a window for globalaudiences to better understand Chinese cultureIn today’s global supermarkets,people can easily get condiments from all over the world,such as soy sauce,which has an indispensable role in Chinese kitchens.So it is not strange that today few people know how to make the sauce,especially young people.However,29-year-old Li Ziqi is an exception.Li,who lives in a village in Sichuan Province in southwest China,recently uploaded a video to YouTube that records the entire process of making soy sauce,and attracted millions of global fans with her natural-style craft.     

My House My Home

FOR people like me in China, roughly 20 or 30 years ago, the modest apartments allotted to us by the state were our homes, and I took it for granted that mine "belonged" to me. At that time, all apartments allotted to people were state-owned, nevertheless we felt more assured and confi dent than I think people do today, having to pay as-tronomical prices to put a house in their name, as verifi ed by their property ownership certificates. The deed has a sunset     

THIS WEEK

IT'S OFFICIAL A couple shows their marriage certificates at a marriage registration office in Wuhan,Hubei Province in central China,on April 7.Wuhan has gradually resumed the marriage registration service for citizens since April 3.Couples,to prevent cross-infection,should make a prior appointment and show their health status to enter the office.     

What Should Be the Minimum Age for Marriage?

正During the 2012 session of the National People's Congress (NPC) in March,a deputy named Huang Xihua submitted a proposal to lower the minimum legal age for marriage to 18.Currently the minimum legal age for marriage is 22 for males and 20 for females.Huang said the current marriage age threshold is the highest in Chinese history and is responsible for     

Coupling and Uncoupling Chinese Style

DECADES ago, in the era of the ＂cultural revolution＂ （1966-1976）, love and marriage bore a heavy political burden; the little red book （Quotations of Chairman Mao） was presented in place of a wedding band, or generally served as a token of love and engagement. Imagine how outlandish it seems to young people today to read love letters that pine： ＂I hope you can arrange your work, study and life well, so as to sustain your ideals and revolutionary zeal, and not degrade into an uncouth and lowly person.＂ But such sentiments were typical 40 years ago in decent young men and women, who often delivered revolutionary pep talks instead of whispering ＂sweet nothings.＂     

Pay Attention to Vulnerable Groups & Safeguard Citizens'''' Marriage, Family Rights——On New Marriage Law

Marriage and family remain a universal and eternal subject of study. It covers law, ethics, sociology, psychology and even economics. Law and ethics play the most outstanding role in it. Family ethics and moral standards constitute an important part of social ethical system while marriage and family constitute part of the legal system nearest to the life of the common people. Since the founding of New China, the Party and the State have paid full attention to the marriage and family system. Compared with other laws, the law about marriage and family was the first to be legislated. On May 1, 1950, New China's first law, the 1950 version of Marriage Law, was promulgated. Commenting on the legal document, Chairman Mao Zedong had this to say: Marriage law concerns     

The Power of Love

Zhou Xin's wedding was delayed for two years because of an 8.0-magnitude earthquake that killed nearly 70,000 people in Wenchuan, southwest China's Sichuan Province on May 12, 2008. Zhou was then a 25-year-old military officer serving in his hometown of Shigu in Shifang City—60 km from the epicenter—and had just registered his marriage on May 7, setting the wedding banquet for the end of the year.     

A Traditional Chinese Wedding

DAVID is a British man who came to work as a teacher in Beijing.There he met a girl called Miss Wang, and romance soon blos-somed between the two. They decided to get married, so they firstwent through the marriage registration procedures required by Chi-nese law. That was the easy part. When it came to the ceremonyitself, the young Briton found that he had much to learn about the Chinese way,as each detail of a traditional Chinese wedding symbolizes some cultural or philo-sophical elemen…     

The Secret of China’s Development

China is undergoing the fastest development in history–one that has invigorated the country and changed the world. China therefore stands out in the international community.Many people wonder what the secret of this astonishing development is. But if you were to ask a thousand people what they thought, you would get a thousand and one     

The Attitude towards Life and Death

TO be, or not to be, that is the question ..." to Hamlet and to the majority of people, who generally treasure life and fear death. In many cultures it is taboo to raise the topic of death in everyday discourse, but this is not the case with the Chinese people. To them life and death are a common conversational topic. Their matter of fact approach is illustrated in the sayings: "Human life is nothing but a stage over which the sun and the moon     

New Zealand and China: Entering the 21st Century Together (Speech at CPAFFC Friendship Museum April 20,2001)

Rewi Alley is honoured in New Zealand as a great NewZealander, and as a symbol of thelong standing people to people linksbetween New Zealand and China. It is fitting that we are heretoday at the Friendship Museum,built in honour of Rewi, to launcha new stage in the New Zealand-China relationship. The beginnings of New Zea-land's strong relationship with     

World on Alert

<正>Paris attacks show that there is a long way to go in rooting out terrorism due to ethnic and religious complexities The relatively long-standing peace and safety that France has enjoyed in modern times was shattered in a shooting that kil ed 12 people in Paris on January 7.The fact that the tragedy marks the first terrorist attack in France in two decades is,on the face of it,     

MAKING LIFE EASIER

<正>Companies are developing assistive devices for people with disabilities A device similar to the one that the famed physicist Stephen Hawking uses to communicate is being developed for people wisabilities in China that will allow users to operate a computer using just their eyes.Users of one computer from the Beijing     

AnUploaded Experience

<正>Remember the days when people used to have a phone,a computer and a camera?I do,simply because it wasn’t that long ago.However,as technology hurtles along at the speed of light,it might have escaped some people’s attention that these three devices now come together in the form of a smartphone.     

Longjing Shrimp （Longjing Xiaren）

A signature dish of Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province, Longjing Shrimp is a happy marriage between the young shoots of Longjing (Dragon Well) tea and tender shelled shrimps. Its invention is owed to the unexpected result of an emperor’s whim and a chef’s goof. The story is that after Qing Emperor Qianlong (1711-1799) had inspected a military parade in Hangzhou, he donned plain clothes and left his escorts behind to head to the scenic West Lake incognito. It was com-