The Ministry of Civil Affairs released a report in May pointing out that 9.45 million couples completed the formalities of marriage registration in 2006- 1.219 million more couples than last year. Within this population of married couples, more people married with foreigners than last year, especially in coastal regions and large-and-medium-sized cities. More and more foreign sons-in-law and daughters-in-law have blended into Chinese families.

Professor Li Yinhe of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) said that after opening up to the outside world, more and more Chinese have married with foreigners. Husband and wife, coming from different countries, are living together in order to understand a different culture, religion and language. They can also promote communication between different countries.

Originally, most foreign marriage has been between Chinese women and foreign men. Thus, they can obtain foreign citizenship and enjoy a higher quality of life. During these more modern times, an increasing amount of young foreign women have married with young Chinese men and fewer young Chinese young have married with older foreign men, because Chinese economic power has improved rapidly. Take the example of Shanghai: in 2006, the foreign half of couple came from more than fifty countries. Most marriages with a foreigner have occurred with a partner who is Japanese; while marriages with Americans and Australians follow close behind. Within them, Japanese are the most, and Americans and Australians followed. More and more couples are living in China after they married.

According to the data fro Guangdong province, the number of divorces from a foreign marriage reached 2,330 in 2005, an increase of 1,174 more divorces than in 2004. Guo Zimu, a lawyer in Beijing, said that the reasons for divorce among foreign married couples mainly concern different lifestyles, different values, and emotional problems. He also said that before getting married, one should hire a lawyer with international experience to take a survey of the partner's background. Li Yinhe said that if a couple can forgive each other, they will have a happy marriage. In a marriage with a foreigner, you must accept each other's native culture and values.

By People's Daily Online