Chenlin Xu (Chongqing University).
According to Shangguan News, around the Spring Festival every year, young people's marriage and love issues are destined to become a hot topic for social networking, especially "older" rural youth. The survey found that in some provinces, especially in economically underdeveloped areas, there is a phenomenon of "sky-high bride price" in the marriage market. For example, the amount of bride price in a county in southwest Shandong has increased from 1880,000 has climbed all the way to "3 90,000" in 2023, and there are additional requirements for buying a house and a car in the county, which is equivalent to the savings of two laborers from a normal rural family who go out to work for 5-7 years.
Marriage does need to be built on a certain material foundation, but this is not a reason for the popularity of the culture of huge bride price. First of all, no matter how much, the bride price is essentially due to the competitive environment of the marriage market and gender squeezing, and it is a cost paid simply to achieve the purpose of marriage. The gradual fermentation of social atmosphere has led many people to regard the bride price as a decisive condition for marriage, especially in rural areas, where parents will take on the burden of earning a high bride price for the sake of their son's marriage, just to build up their son's marriage conditions, which will greatly increase their financial burden and psychological burden. The harm of a large bride price does not only exist within the individual family, but can also lead to social problems such as the abduction and trafficking of women and the cheating of marriages.
If the bride price problem cannot be solved, the competition will never end, the financial burden will become heavier and heavier, and gender equality will be ...... indefinitelyBreaking the sky-high bride price and improving social civilization requires the joint efforts of all parties. The State should strive to advocate a reasonable bride price and publicize and popularize the correct concept of marriage in a variety of ways. Individuals should also change the misconception that bride price is a happy marriage, and prevent falling into meaningless involution of marriage and love competition.