-- New Marriage Registration Rules Make Marriage and Divorce Easier

By staff reporter LI WUZHOU

PUBLICATION of the new Regulations on Marriage Registration signaled a mass postponement of weddings planned for October 1, the conventional wedding season. Last September, usually the busiest month for marriage registration, the relevant offices were eerily quiet. Said a staff worker at a marriage registration office in Beijing: "If couples were to have registered their marriage in September, it would have taken them two to three days to go through all the formalities of physical examinations, obtaining certification letters from workplaces, and watching pre-marriage education videos. Waiting until after October 1 when the new decree came into force enables them to accomplish the whole process in just two to three hours."

Certificate from Workplace Unnecessary

Miss Sun's marriage registration followed a tortuous path, but last October she finally married. Aged 27, she has known her fiance for six years, but the couple had to wait until October 1st before they could tie the knot.

This was not because of any objections from their parents. The culprit was the marriage registration system that forced them to wait over a year for the government to issue their marriage certificate.

Miss Sun is a native of Yunnan Province. After graduating from university in 2000, she took up a job at a middle school in Beijing so as to be with her boyfriend who had been allocated work in the capital. In 2000 they decided to register their marriage, a smooth process for Miss Sun's intended, who had permanent residence status in the capital. As her own residence registration was in Yunnan, however, Miss Sun was not employed as a permanent staff member at the middle school. Her employers therefore refused to provide certification of her marital status necessary to register the marriage.

Prior to the revisions in October, the then Regulations of the Administration on Marriage Registration stipulated that all applicants provide a certificate issued by the workplace, villagers' committee or neighborhood committee confirming marital status. Any one seeking divorce was required to provide similar documentation in the form of a letter of introduction. Since October 1st, 2003, however, citizens have registered their marriage simply by producing their permanent residence booklet and identification card.

Says Miss Sun, who sees marriage as a private matter and of no concern to the workplace: "I'm truly glad that migrant workers in Beijing no longer need to endure the troubles we experienced."

One of her colleagues shares Miss Sun's view: "We are all delighted that the old regulations have been abolished. My fiance and I have known each other for years. We both believe that mutual trust is far more important than any document from a work unit."

Specialists see this issue from another angle. Professor Yang Dawen, vice-president of the China Research Institute of Marriage and Family, points out that in this era of market economy there are many self-employed and individual professionals with no work unit and therefore no source of certification. The newly simplified regulations require sight of the parties' concerned permanent residence registration booklets and identification cards, and that they sign a statement. This signifies acknowledgement of Chinese citizens' rights to freedom of marriage.

Pre-marriage Physical Exam Optional

"In addition to dispensing with the need for a certificate from the workplace, the new regulations make pre-marriage physical examinations optional rather than compulsory. This demonstrates respect for each citizen's right to privacy," says Zhang Mingliang, chief of the Community Development Department of the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

His opinion is endorsed by Mr. Yang. He has been dating his girlfriend for one year, and the couple now plans to marry. He is in favor of the new regulations for the element of choice they represent. In his view, two people applying for marriage registration these days know everything about each other. Their feelings are generally strong enough to want to marry regardless of any serious illness either of them may have.

Miss Wang, secretary at a five-star hotel in Changsha, Hunan Province, takes the other line. She has no plans to marry at present, but when the time comes she fully intends to have a physical examination beforehand, believing it to be an indispensable facet of pre-marriage formalities. Medical practitioners stress that the pre-marriage medical checkup being made optional in no way diminishes its importance. Mr. Xu, vice-president of the Nanjing City Maternity and Childcare Center, says, "Each year potentially fatal cases of congenital heart disease and chronic uraemia come to light. The pre-marriage health check is one way of making a timely diagnosis that benefits both spouses and their prospective offspring, who may otherwise be afflicted by hereditary disease."

According to a survey carried out on 5,000 people by the Beijing Public Health Bureau in 2002, a large proportion of the general public also holds this view. Results showed that 96 percent are willing to take a pre-marriage medical checkup, and in another survey taken by the Beijing Youth Daily only 25 percent of those participating thought pre-marriage checkups unnecessary.

"Making pre-marriage medical checkups optional shows respect for citizen's rights. But from a health viewpoint, they are an advisable and prudent aspect of pre-marriage formalities," says one specialist.

Divorce Wars

Prior to October 1 divorce was no easy matter. The Chinese people have historically regarded divorce as a shame and scandal that inflicts spiritual harm on offspring and affects social stability. Consequently various procedures were obligatory at each stage of divorce. If one side was unwilling, divorce proceedings ground to a halt as work unit leaders and well meaning neighborhood committee members appealed to the plaintiff to reconsider. Even when all obstacles were overcome, it was still necessary to obtain a letter of introduction from the workplace. There would then be a time lapse of one month between filing for and obtaining divorce registration, to allow for reflection and introspection.

The new Regulations on Marriage Registration dispense with the need for either party to provide a letter of introduction from the workplace. It is now possible to obtain a certificate of divorce on the spot at the marriage registration office.

"It is not incumbent on the workplace to know in detail the marital status of its staff, nor that they mediate in the event of marital problems," says Professor Jiang Yue, marriage law expert at Xiamen University. "Divorce applicants themselves can provide the documents necessary for the marriage registration department to grant divorces."

According to the new regulations, divorce applicants can obtain certificates of divorce the same day instead of waiting a month. There are concerns that this may lead to divorces on impulse, but Zhang Mingliang does not agree. He believes that if a couple is truly incompatible, they may just as well divorce and seek new happiness. Should a decision to divorce be made on impulse, a couple may easily resume their original marital status. The negative impact of divorce is thus far less.

Subtle Changes, Big Waves

During the time revisions to the Regulations of Administration on Marriage Registration were ongoing, opinions were elicited from various aspects.

"The reforms indicate the government's withdrawal from administration on the civil matters of marriage and divorce, and a strengthening of the concept of service," says Zhang Mingliang. "That the word 'administration' has been omitted from the title of the new regulations is significant. It reflects a change in era and approach, and marks social progress."

Leaving out the word "administration" indeed denotes a shift from governmental restraint on individuals in marriage registration to individuals themselves being acknowledged as the subject of marriage. It signifies adoption of the contemporary concept of marriage as a personal matter in which the governmental role is purely one of providing service.

In recent years, China's legislation has taken a more humanistic direction. Last year Jilin Province passed a law allowing women of marriageable age wishing to remain single the right to bear children through artificial insemination. Also, Jiangsu Province recently abolished its law prohibiting cohabitation without a marriage certificate, and Beijing Municipality changed its ruling that a child's permanent residence registration should be that of its mother. Children under the age of 18 may now choose to follow either their mother's or father's permanent residence registration.

"The new marriage registration regulations show that our laws and statutes are becoming more humanistic, and that the rights of the individual have been reinstated in our society. China's opening is obviously extending beyond economics, as great conceptual changes are also taking place," says Mr. Zhu, Miss Sun's newly wed spouse.