China's new marriage Act

The new marriage Act states clearly that when a couple divorce, the major assets such as houses are awarded to the person who bought the property unless explicitly put under joint ownership. In China, the husband’s family traditionally buy a flat as a present for the new couple before their marriage. Under the previous marriage Act, the wife is legally entitled to half the property in the event of divorce. Under the new marriage Act, wives get nothing, even they prove their husbands have had affairs. The new judicial interpretation of marriage law has understandably caused frustration among women.  Many feel let down. Many claim that the new judicial explanation has destroyed one of the most important traditional values in China-that of the strong family, and see as in favour of men’s rights. 

The previous law clearly promoted gender equality and protected women’s rights. China’s new marriage Act is interpreted by women as ‘two steps back’. In the event of marriage, the wife has also made substantial contributions to maintaining the house and running the family, looking after children and parents-in-law. Under the new marriage Act, it turns a blind eye to the big contribution which the wife has made and the man does not worry about the consequence of cheating on his wife.

‘It is completely unfair to women. What’s marriage for if we end up getting nothing from the men. In that case, I prefer living by myself,’ said Hanlu Guo, a clerk in a financial company in Jiangsu province.

The new marriage Act has caused concern and worries among women. ‘I will ask my husband to add my name in the certificate of my house, you never know what will happen in the future,’ said Juan Lee, an accountant from Jiangsu province.

At the beginning of this year, ‘Naked Wedding’, a popular Chinese TV series has also started a fierce debate about ‘marry for rich or marry for love’. The so-called ‘naked wedding’ means the couple has chosen to marry each other for true love even they have to face poverty in the future. With fast economic development, China has reached record high inflation and houses have become three times more expensive than three years ago. They are not affordable for young couples and this raises a question for young women: ‘Should I marry a man without a house?’ According to a survey, around 70 percent of women say ‘no’ to this question and they directly state they will not consider a man without a house as their ‘groom-to-be’. In their view, what is the marriage for if the ‘groom-to-be’ can not provide a place to live. In Chinese culture, having a house is the first step to start the family: family life will not exist without a home.

Some people have a positive attitude towards the new legal explanation of marriage law. Under the materialism prevailing in China, the notion of ‘marry for love’ seems to face a big challenge and many young women have chosen to marry rich men and do not care if he will become a good husband or not. It also brings another problem: many marriages based on financial motives and lack of understanding between the couple, will eventually lead to divorce. According to the statistics recently released by Ministry of Civil Affairs in China, around 5000 couples divorce each day, the highest level since 2002.

The new interpretation of the marriage Act tries to combat this unhealthy trend. ‘The new marriage Act tries to ensure that men and women share equal financial responsibility in the marriage. It is a big step forward which will push women to become financially dependent,’ says Jianguo Min, a solicitor from Yangzhou city, Jiangsu Province. At the same time, she also points out ‘more young couples seek to divorce because the young generation are more concerned about their “self-value” and won’t sacrifice their personal interests and career to pursue a successful family life. The rising divorce cases don’t have a direct link with the new judicial interpretation of marriage law.’

The new marriage Act is most welcomed by the men. ‘That is very good, the men buy the house and should be rewarded with ownership in the event of divorce, we don’t need to worry any more,’ states Yong Zhang, a logistic agent in Shanghai.

Some experts predict the new interpretation of marriage Act will have positive impact on domestic economics .More women will enter the workforce and pursue successful careers. More women will enter into buying property in order to secure a better family life.

No one can predict the long-term consequences of the new interpretation of marriage law in China. Only time will tell.

Gary Locke, the first Chinese-American ambassador to China

By 2009, the seventh consecutive year, the divorce number has risen, a rise of 7.65 per cent every year, the divorce rate is at its highest level since 2002.

The report also reveals that pressure from rising living standards in China is the most common as a cause of divorce. With rapid social and economic changes in China, women have become more financially independent and hold much more open-minded attitudes towards divorce. Meanwhile, simplified divorce proceedings make it easy for couples to seek divorce.   Other factors such as social, geographical and career mobility are also among the common reasons for couples to get divorced.

“The figure tells us the divorce rate in China remains in a healthy rising trend and this rise will last a few years, but the percent of rise in divorce will become smaller,” says the expert. This is because Chinese society is expected to stabilise after all the changes and divorce rate will also reflect this trend.

The most popular places for Chinese immigration are Canada, Australia and Singapore. With an influx of Chinese immigration, some countries such as Canada and Australia recently increased the amount of money that Chinese immigrants need to invest in their countries. A new immigration policy took effect on Dec 1^st, 2010 in Canada.  Canada almost doubled the amount for individual applicants wishing to invest in residence permits from 5.2m to 10.4m Yuan. But the increasing benchmark doesn’t affect the rich Chinese’s passion to move out.The majority of Chinese immigration is rich businessmen and well-qualified professionals. The main reasons they choose to move to other countries are the well-built social welfare system, affordable living standard and comfortable living environment.  A reputable education system is also another factor to invoke Chinese immigration.

“I moved to Sydney because my son will go to university next year, I want him to enter a world-class university here which can guarantee a better career prospective for him,” said Li Juan, the owner of private nursery school in Yangzhou, China, who moved to Sydney two years ago.

After the credit crunch, the economies in most western countries hit the bottom.  Introducing a new measure to attract rich Chinese immigration is becoming a common way for some western countries to attract investment and boost their economy. Meanwhile, the increasing living standard and high house prices in China are also among the most pushing factors for the rich Chinese to move to other countries.  A well-known advert is ‘Buy a flat in Beijing? Oh, no. let’s immigrate to another countries’ and that shows house prices in Beijing are much higher than the cost to live in other countries.

The trend of Chinese moving to other countries also raises a concern about the loss of professionals and entrepreneurs which would bring a negative impact on the Chinese social and economic development.

Chinese Happiness

China has been the world’s fasting growing economic power house with a GDP average growth of over 9 percent over two decades. In 2010, China’s GDP overtook Japan and it has become the world’s second largest economy. While the rest of the world is struggling with the double-dip economic downturn, China has already emerged with single-digital growth. But, the booming economy and improved living standards do not really benefit the ordinary people and have not brought happiness to them.

It seems that due to rapid economic development, traditional values are disappearing with the result that normal people are less satisfied with their lives.

Economic development should bring more happiness to the Chinese because living standards improve and people earned more money. Why does China’s economic development play a counterproductive role in the Chinese happiness index?

China has become one of most expensive countries in which live. In Shengzhen, one of the highest earning cities, the average income is ¥29245 per year(around £3000) around a fourth of the London average income, but the house prices are similar to London, around ¥19755per square meter.(around £2000). The same brand jean costs 90 in China but sells for £17 in USA supermarket. The same product in China is 5.4 times more expensive than in USA. In the last seven years, the average Chinese income has grown around 12.76percent but inflation in the first quarter of 2010 has already overtaken this figure. The pay for the most basic jobs has risen proportionately, but at the same time high inflation means that purchasing power is lower than it has been for decades.

China Daily pointed out recently that most mid-class people are depressed because they make their living under great pressure. There is cruel competition in the job market; worries about losing their jobs; high house prices and huge mortgage burdens, soaring food prices and a prevailing materialism.

In 2003, the Chinese were satisfied with their lives. They had stable jobs, reasonable food and house prices. Most university graduates were given jobs after graduation. At that time, most Chinese had similar lives and there was no big gap between individuals. With seven years economic development, a huge economic gap has opened and housing bubble has grown. 20 percent of Chinese own 80 percent of the economic assets and hold a corresponding and unequal amount of social resources now.  The rich Chinese have become the majority consumers of luxury brands in the world such as Burberry, LV, and Chanel. The luxury goods market has been boosted by super-rich Chinese buyers while there are still around 0.15billion people whose daily earnings do not reach $1: they have to struggle to control their daily expenditure within 1 us dollar.   Gini coefficient, a figure set by the international market to measure the gap between the rich and the poor, the tipping point is 0.4. China’s Gini Coefficient is already over the figure at 0.5. That shows that the gap between the rich and the poor in China is unacceptably huge and social assets are unfairly possessed by small number of the elite.

With economic development, some traditional values were lost. Friendship, relationship and family have become so weak while facing challenging by the money.  Most Chinese made their fortune through hard-work ten years ago. Now many Chinese chase money through unlawful channels which have brought problems to society. Some property companies have built house with poor quality materials which have caused safety problems. Some food producers put some prohibited chemistry into food to make products taste delicious and look nice in order to get maximum profit which has caused a widespread illness. Many employers pay their staff little money and provide poor working condition to maximise profit.

Ten years age, the Chinese trusted and helped each other.  Now it has changed.  Employees do not trust employers, people do not trust local and central government. The Chinese do not trust the quality of food and dare not to eat food from markets and worry that it is made with prohibited chemical. Many Chinese want wealth and they don’t care where money comes from, lawful or unlawful, decent or indecent.

In Mao’s time, if a civil servicer employee took a bribe over £300, he/she would put into prison and many were even sentenced to death. Nowadays, many senior officers in government corruptly received over £0.3billion and still enjoyed their lives. The penalty for such behaviour is to move them from their position and deny them promotion.  Because punishment is too soft, it does not prevent senior civil servicer’s corruption.

The economic gap in society has also brought social unease.  Many protests are held against unfair and unlawful local government policies. Meanwhile, unbalanced economic development has also shaken the stability of the family. Half the married couples in Shanghai seek divorce. Soaring house prices and surging inflation have played a significant role in destroying family structure.   It seems the Chinese do not value traditional moral standards and love is not a requirement for marriage. The  choice of a marriage appears to largely driven by financial considerations  .

]]> http://wfchau.wordpress.com/2011/09/26/chinese-happiness-4/feed/ 0 wfchau Chinese Happiness http://wfchau.wordpress.com/2011/09/26/the-chinese-are-coming/ http://wfchau.wordpress.com/2011/09/26/the-chinese-are-coming/#comments Mon, 26 Sep 2011 18:38:43 +0000 wfchau http://wfchau.wordpress.com/?p=390 ]]>

The Chinese Are Coming

In terms of investigative journalism, Justin Rowlatt did a good job. He travelled three continents to gather evidence on how the Chinese destroy the natural world, smuggle natural resources and use slave labour to produce cheap products. He did his best to portray the Chinese in a horrific way and paint a dreadful picture of the terrible impact of China’s radical economic development on the world.   If that is the case, why do the Chinese pour huge amounts of capital into a few European countries such as Greece and Spain to stabilize their financial system and push them on the track of recovery?

‘The Chinese are taking over the world’, this belief prevails and predominates in western countries. Apart from Justin Rowlatt’s China-overtake-the-world ideology, there are some interesting areas worth looking at. Justin Rowlatt embarked on his journey from Angola, travelling on a Chinese-built railway stretching from the Angolan coast right to southern Congo. In his scenario, the Chinese helped the Angolans build the infrastructure in order to get oil. In Zambia, he visited a Chinese chicken farm and interviewed local chicken traders; he tasted a Chinese chicken and a Zambian chicken and concluded that Zambian chicken is much taster than Chinese chicken. In episode 1, Justin Rowlatt showed how the Chinese influence spread in African countries and what the Chinese get from Africa in exchange for helping them develop their economy. He is right to point out that Westerners look at African countries as a land of poverty, but the Chinese hold a completely different view and find countless business opportunities there.

In episode 2, Justin Rowlatt told his story in a very humorous way. He interviewed one of richest businessman in Brazil and was told that he has made his fortune by selling natural resource such as iron to China. He travelled deep into the Amazon tropical forest for an interesting chat with a couple of aborigines. Unsurprisingly, he came out with the view that the Chinese were to blame for deforestation and the declining living environment of aborigines. Very committed to his job, Rowlatt took a few Chinese-made bikinis and Brazilian-made bikinis to the beach and asked some sexy girls to try them for the camera. The girls voiced their opinion with joy that Brazilian-made bikinis were more beautiful and vowed not to buy the Chinese-made bikinis.

In the second half of episode 2, some blue-collar workers in the USA told their suffering stories and voiced their anger about China’s economic expansion.  Justin Rowlatt finished his story by interviewing a USA naval official.  He was told that the USA naval force close-monitored the Chinese naval expansion in the Pacific Ocean. At this point, the documentary became political propaganda.

Many in the West blamed the influx of immigrants as the cause of their economic downturn. Then, they blamed international students for stealing their jobs.  Now, the Chinese are a scapegoat for the failure of some Western countries to deal with the economic and political crisis. Why do some Westerners not ask if they themselves are free from blame?

]]> http://wfchau.wordpress.com/2011/09/26/the-chinese-are-coming/feed/ 0 wfchau The Chinese Are Coming http://wfchau.wordpress.com/2011/09/26/chinese-women/ http://wfchau.wordpress.com/2011/09/26/chinese-women/#comments Mon, 26 Sep 2011 17:59:38 +0000 wfchau http://wfchau.wordpress.com/?p=382 ]]>

Zhang Yin-Chinese Richest Woman

Chinese women have played an active role in the social and economic development of China. The Chinese Constitution has empowered women to enjoy the same educational and working rights as men. The Government has introduced policies which encourage women to become involved in social and public life in China. Female civil service workers, for example, are now given priority in promotions to high post. China has also promoted and encouraged women’s rights. In China, women make up around 45percent of the total working force, while 40 percent of women work within the different departments of local and national governments. According the figure released by National Bureau of Statistics of China

‘Today is Women’s Day, and I have one day off’ said Laijuan, a primary teacher from Jiangshu province. In the west, women seem to have forgotten Women’s Day. However, in China, women are celebrated on this special day every year and they are given a day off.  Some women are even offered 100yuan bonus if they work within state-hold companies. The Chinese Government has recognised women’s efforts in economic development and holds a national conference on March 8 every year to honour the women who have made a big contribution in social and economic reform.

  Chinese culture has a long accepted tradition of women at work and grandparents have an accompanying tradition of providing free childcare to their grandchildren. This custom has paved the way for working women to pursue their careers after they have children. This is also another significant factor contributing to the business success of Chinese women.

China’s ‘One Child Policy’ is another driving factor that enables this change to happen. In China, there are more boys and fewer girls. As such, today girls can enjoy much more freedom in social and domestic life than ever before. Almost every girl is legally bound to finish her primary and secondary school education. In big cities, most girls are well-qualified and have pursued very successful careers. In some fields, women have become dominant and lead changes in social reform. As a result, in Shanghai, men have to share the domestic duty to do the household chores with women.  Men now complaint a revolution is required, because they have become househusbands and have to do all house work. This is why many Japanese women fancy Chinese men today. In Japan, a lot of barriers still exist to stop the women pursuing a full-time job. In China, women can do what they like to do.

With rapid social and economic development, the attitude towards women has also changed. It is not socially acceptable for women to be without a stable job. The increasing living standard in China makes it impossible for a family to solely depend on male incomes. Women have to share the same financial burden with men in family and the women are also significant bread-winners in China.

In the planning of marriage, a girl’s educational level and occupation have become important requirements to be considered by the boy when looking for a future wife.

Domestic violence towards women is rarely heard of and gender inequality doesn’t exist in China, whilst women in many countries face gender discrimination and fight for their rights. Chinese women have won respect from the society because of the huge contribute they have made in society and the hard work they have put into their family life.

Amy Chua with her two daughters

Thousands of parents, whether Chinese or Western, question Amy Chua’s parenting style and argue that she forces her kids to achieve academic success at the expense of depriving them of their childhood happiness. ‘I don’t like her parenting style, it is too harsh and might damage child’s confidence.’ said Stella Yuan, a Hong Kong mother of two.  Her own Jewish-American husband has objected to some of her extreme rulings such as putting Sophia out in the cold.

Amy Chua’s new book seems to give some clues about why Chinese students do so well with academic study. Pisa (The Programme for International Students Assessment) recently showed that Chinese students have overtaken other nationalities and have ranked no 1 in Science, Literary studies and Mathematics. Amy Chua’s book and the Chinese students’ academic ranking, have driven Western parents’ curiosity to examine why Chinese parenting is superior to their own?

Chinese parents hold high expectation for their child’s academic achievement and believe their children can excel in study if they study hard. Compared to Western parents, Chinese parents are over-strict with their children. By the time children step into primary school, their childhood has already gone. They go to school five day a week, but most of them have to take extra private tutorial classes at weekend to enhance their knowledge. Watching TV and playing compute games become luxury activities for the Chinese students. The family commitment for the children’s education is also very strong; most Chinese parents make sacrifices in order to help their child to achieve successful academic outcomes. Some parents don’t watch TV in order not to distract their children during their study. If children fail in their exams, Chinese parents usually use harsh words to scold them. Western parents worry that this Chinese style cruel criticism on academic failure might hurt their child’s self-esteem.

Western parents like to encourage their children and prefer that they pursue all-round development.  Chinese parents have a different approach towards their children’s study. The parents never know which style is good for their child, but they do know which one is more suitable.

Chinese and Western parenting styles have merits which they can learn from each other. Compared to Chinese students, Western students are more creative and do much better in subjects such as music, painting and arts.

Many readers criticise Amy Chua for bulling her children. True or not, you will make up your mind after reading this book.

Soaring house prices have become a headache for the Chinese Government. The Central Government in China promised to keep the prices under control three years ago and related policies have come out and been implemented but didn’t work. With unpredicted increasing property prices in big cities such as Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou, new policies played an unpredictable counterproductive effect to push the houses prices even higher. A big bubble in the Chinese property market has grown and if the Chinese Government doesn’t have a long-term strategy to control prices, the risk that the bubble will burst is more likely which would completely damage the successful outcome of Chinese economic development over decades.

‘The flat price is in record high and is not affordable for me to buy’ complained Qing Defang, a stationery shop owner in Shanghai. The increase in income is far more less than the inflation. Wages have increased for a couple of years and the net cash people can bring back home has decreased. The fast economic development doesn’t benefit normal Chinese people so much and the lift-in living standard doesn’t bring much happiness to ordinary families. The rising house prices are like a bomb rooted in society which might explode at anytime for some unexplained social reason.

As one of the biggest cities in the Far East, the average flat price in Shanghai is similar in London, but average Shanghai earnings are a fourth of Londoners’.  The climbing flat prices in some big cities have raised social unease. The issue has become a ‘hot potato’ and the central and local governments in China didn’t have any concrete solutions to solve this problem by the end of last year.

Two reasons have driven the property prices up in China. Grey area still remains in the property development in China and some property developers have stocked too much land in order to get maximum profit. Some investors have entered into the market with big cash in hand and they wait for chances to buy in and sell out, which is another significant factor to push property prices higher than before.   The rapid economic development and the mobilized population in China are among significant factors to drive the house prices high. Nowadays, seasonal farmers from rural areas seeking employment in cities has become very common in China and they need a temporary  place to stay while others with good income try to set down their lives in cities and buying a permanent flat becomes the dream they want to achieve.  In China, some have many flats in hand while others don’t have any flats to live in. A transparent system is needed to be introduced in developing property and tighter regulation is needed to be implemented in the property market.

The Chinese governments, both national and local, monitor the house prices closely. The Prime Minister of China is determined to keep the house prices down in 2011 and he told Chinese people clearly it is a top priority issue needed to be solved on his working agenda.

The Central Government in China has showed strong determination to tackle this crisis. From the beginning of this year, a series of new policies have been implemented to decrease house prices.

Keeping property prices down in this year has become a standard for the central government in China to assess the performance of local government. The Central Government released a figure that the revenue from property development can’t go over a certain percentage in province GDP. If over that point, the local government performance will be marked down and a warning letter would be issued. The central government has also released the house prices floating rate of different provinces quarterly to show their determination in tackling the property bubble in China. The Central Bank in China has increased interest twice this year in order to resist people’s temptation to buy a second flat. Most cities have announced 60percent deposit is needed for the second flat buyers. In Beijing, living in the city for minimum of 5 years is a legal requirement to buy a flat.

It is not clear if the new policies can hold the house prices back, but statistic showed that flat prices in big cities such as Shanghai and Shenzhen don’t go up this year and the total successful deals of house buying have decreased. The interested buyers are reluctant to join this market at this time.  ‘It is not a good time to buy a flat now, said Zhangyong, a logistic company owner in Shanghai. Most people have a ‘wait-and-see’ attitude and believe that house prices in China would go down in a couple of years.