Modern marriages make parents optional

Spring Festival visits to husband's family home no longer mandatory for younger couples

Web celebrity "Ms Papi" (real name Jiang Yilei) has been among the most-searched hashtags on Weibo social media platform recently, after remarks she made during an online program about marriage triggered heated discussion among netizens - both single and married.

As a guest on an online talk show late last month, she said that when she and her husband married five years ago they did not have a wedding banquet. That's unusual because most Chinese view wedding banquets as very important occasions - sometimes even more important than the marriage registration ceremony itself - to inform relatives and friends that a couple have become husband and wife.