New Delhi: For years now, fewer young Chinese people have been getting married. A new Al Jazeera 101 East documentary, China’s Marriage Crisis: The Search for Love, examines why marriage rates are declining and what it means for a country that has a shrinking and ageing population.
And so, the Chinese population has resorted to reviving old matchmaking customs, but with a modern twist. In the Henan province, a matchmaker known as “Granny Wang” has become an internet sensation, drawing crowds of thousands to a live matchmaking show and amassing more than seven million followers across Chinese social media.
In 2024, the country recorded around six million marriages, less than half the figure from a decade earlier. The documentary found that the decline comes as the country’s birth rate hits historic lows, prompting authorities to look for ways to encourage young people to marry and start families.
One major factor behind the imbalance is decades of a cultural preference for sons over daughters, which has left the Chinese population with roughly 30 million more men than women. This gender gap, combined with steep economic pressures, is reshaping how people date or whether they do at all.
Al Jazeera’s report highlights how economics shape modern courtship. Surveys cited in the documentary suggest more than 80 per cent of Chinese people believe a couple should own a home before marrying, a bar that can stall relationships even before a first date happens. In some cities, rent alone eats up over 30 per cent of average salaries, pushing many men to look for partners who can also contribute financially.
In rural areas, the bride price, which is a payment made to a woman’s family to secure marriage, has climbed as high as $ 50,000. For poorer men priced out of conventional marriage, matchmaking agencies have found an alternative: pairing them with brides from wealthier families in exchange for the groom moving in with his in-laws, an arrangement that upends traditional norms.
The documentary follows several people navigating this landscape, including a man in Shanghai who has been on roughly 300 dates and keeps a detailed spreadsheet tracking each woman he meets — her height, weight, salary, and his own impressions. He shares it online under a dating-diary account. Posting about one’s love life, the film notes, has become common in China, especially among women who document their dating lives under hashtags that encourage marriage before 30.
Chinese women who remain unmarried by their late 20s are often labelled “leftover women,” while men, by contrast, are seen as becoming more desirable with age. Nearly half of Chinese women in their late 20s were unmarried in 2023 — almost five times the rate of two decades ago, the documentary notes.
Family expectations add further strain. With about 90 per cent of elderly Chinese cared for by their children, an unmarried adult child is often viewed as a broken link in that support system.
The film also profiles women who are opting out of the traditional path altogether. Chinese women’s purchasing power surpassed $ 1.5 trillion by 2020, and women now make up roughly half of the country’s homeowners. Some of the women featured say marriage no longer feels necessary for security or fulfilment, describing full, independent lives built around careers and personal achievement rather than a search for a partner.
“Everything that is required for enjoyment, she can accomplish all of it alone,” said a woman interviewed.
(Edited by Insha Jalil Waziri)