Half of respondents accept 'bare-bones marriage': survey

BEIJING - A survey reported Thursday by the China Youth Daily showed that around half of the respondents could accept a "bare-bones marriage," or getting married without any major assets or a grand wedding ceremony.

Among the 2,004 respondents, 64.5 percent regarded a "bare-bones marriage" as getting married without an apartment, 56.4 percent without a wedding ceremony, and 54.2 percent without a car.

The vote revealed that 48.3 percent of the respondents said they could accept a "bare-bones marriage," 20.5 percent opposed it, and 92.8 percent had relatives or friends who had a "bare-bones marriage."

Some 63.5 percent of those surveyed attributed a "bare-bones marriage" to saving money, 58.8 percent to poor financial conditions, and 51.7 percent thought the couples prefer to go on trips or shopping rather than spend money on an expensive wedding ceremony.

About 53.1 percent of the respondents believed a frugal "bare-bones marriage" could change the extravagance of traditional wedding ceremonies, and 44.4 percent saw it as a positive trend compared to traditional wedding customs.

The survey also showed that 54.6 percent of the respondents believed rituals were necessary for a marriage.

But Ling Zi, a relationship expert from Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang province, did not think so, adding that nowadays, many wedding ceremonies are similar and not memorable.