Yours mine ours

Marriage is always hard work, more so when it comes to a wedding that involves a union of very different cultures, families and countries. The China Daily Sunday team files this special report on cross-cultural marriages today.

There are now about 600,000 foreigners working and living in China, a number not including those visiting for less than three months. On the other side of the coin, 1.91 million Chinese have chosen to further their studies overseas since 1978 right up to last year, according to the Ministry of Education. Slightly more than 630,000 have returned to China, but that still means 1.27 million Chinese are still living, working or studying abroad. These are mere numbers. When translated into living, breathing terms, it means intimate interaction between Chinese and non-Chinese is now greater than ever - and a natural result of that contact is the increase in cross-cultural relationships, and of marriages.

While cross-cultural marriages are not new, the nature of the union is changing. The playing field is more level, and nowhere is that more apparent than in the growing numbers of foreign women marrying Chinese men, as Mary Katherine Smith finds out in Shanghai.