「婚」了頭 (I) (Chop Suey)

Last Friday, China’s supreme court issued its third judicial interpretation on the application of China Marriage Law, further clarifying rules in dividing marital properties on divorce.離婚( li2 hun)

In the past, when a couple got married, they shared each other’s property, which means when they got divorced, the wife, or the husband had the right to claim half of the property. But under the new marriage law, real property 不動產(bu2 dong4 chan3) that is registered under the name of one spouse will not be deemed as community property 共有財產(gong4 you3 cai2 chan3).

The news has triggered tons of heated discussions, for or against the new law. Though it includes a lot of details, the general focus is on the different attitude towards marriage, which is, interpreted by many people, no longer a “protection” for the “financially disadvantaged” side, mostly considered as women.

As a result, a lot of attention has been paid to so-called 嫁入豪門(jia4 ru4 hao2 men2), marrying a wealthy man and entering an extremely rich family, which has been a lot of pretty girls’ dream or deemed as their “happy ending,” especially for those stars in the entertainment business. You can live a rich life in a rich family, happily or not. Or “unfortunately,” get divorced and leave taking half of the huge property. But now with the new law, marriage doesn’t seem to be such a good “investment” any longer.

In Jane Austen’s “Sense and Sensibility,” Lucy, on learning that the property that was supposed to be inherited by Edward, who she was to marry, was to go to his brother Robert, changed her mind at once and decided to marry Robert. In “Pride and Prejudice,” When the news that a wealthy bachelor Mr. Bingley had rented Netherfield Park was spread, all the moms with nubile daughters were exhilarated, considering Mr. Bingley “the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters.”

In ancient China when arranged marriage was practiced, marriage was never something personal. It was set to 延續香火(yan2 xu4 xiang huo3), to continue a family’s blood and heritage. Some poor parents might marry off their daughters as concubines of rich families for the sake of money. In Eileen Chang’s novel 怨女, Rouge of the North, the orphaned heroine was married off by her brother and sister-in-law to a husband with osteomalacia and spent a well-off but miserable life.

Marriage had never been based on romantic love until recently. For women of the past, who did not have the equal opportunity to get education as men and the equal opportunity to get financial independence, who had been deemed as nothing more than wives and mothers, marriage indeed was their “protection” or “indemnification.” 保障(bao3 zhang4)

In the past, wedding was usually held at dusk, 黃昏(huang2 hun). That’s why the word 婚 as in 結婚(jie2 hun), getting married, or 婚姻(hun yin), marriage, has昏 as its right half. But 昏 also means dizzy as in 頭昏(tou2 hun), or out of one’s mind as in昏了頭(hun le tou2) So we often jokingly say that only people who are out of their mind, or got “dizzy” by love will get married.

(TO BE CONTINUED)

「婚」了頭=「婚」了头 

離婚=离婚

不動產=不动产

共有財產=共有财产

嫁入豪門=嫁入豪门

延續香火=延续香火