Couple in love get married and when they fell out of love, they get a divorce. It’s just that straightforward, right?
Well, that’s no longer the case in China.
Till Death Do Us Part…Not
Since 2003, China’s divorce rate has been on the rise.
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In 2019 alone, it is reported that there were over 4.7 million couples who officially dissolved their marriages, with a whopping 74% of them being proposed by the women.
Many experts have chalked up the rise in divorces to the growing independence of the ladies in China.
After all, by enrolling in tertiary education en masse, more women are ending up more highly educated than men, and that percentage is increasing every year.
However, unlike what experts have said, the National People’s Congress of China reasoned otherwise.
To Cool Heads and Chill Tempers
In an effort to stomp out what the officials claimed to be increasing “impulsive divorces” among the young people in the country, they have rolled out a compulsory 30-day “cooling-off” period on 1 January 2021 , turning what was “standard procedure for a divorce” into an “unpredictable process” according to Zhong Wen, a divorce lawyer in Sichuan.
One of his clients was even a rubber stamp away from finalizing her divorce before her husband decided to change his mind, said Zhong.
A popular Chinese commentator even proposed having a cooling-off period for getting married as opposed to getting a divorce, a sentiment that’s shared by many in China.
Unhappy with the “kay poh” nature of the central government by interfering in their private matters, some Chinese netizens even questioned if they no longer have the freedom to divorce as they chose.
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Even in Divorce, There’s a Fortune to be Made
Once the 30-day period is up in February, naturally, the demand for divorce lawyers skyrocketed, opening up a brand-new avenue for scalpers to make a fortune.
This time around, instead of buying out all of JJ Lin’s “Sanctuary 2.0 World Tour” concert tickets and reselling them at a premium, they have made getting a consultation with a divorce lawyer the next hottest thing.
If there were Carousell in China, you can bet that you’d be seeing “Consultation with XXX Legal LLP” being sold at three times the usual price, and even criminal lawyers might switch to become divorce lawyers.
The Fallout
Although the new law doesn’t apply to cases of domestic violence, there’s still significant fallout to the implementation of the new law.
For starters, in China, there are no shelters provided for women suffering from domestic violence. This means that if the victim wants a divorce and the man opposed it, a lawsuit will then be needed and subsequently, a costly and lengthy court process will ensue.
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With nowhere safe to go to and a costly lawyer to hire, many victims of domestic abuse will find it hard to continue with the divorce proceedings.
Even without domestic violence in the mix, many women, especially full-time housewives, will find it hard to go through a divorce if the husband suddenly decides to withdraw his divorce agreement during the cooling-off period.
Featured Image: PhuShutter / Shutterstock.com
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