Modern Chinese couples spend 1 000 times more than their parents’ generation on lavish weddings and other expenses linked to starting a family, state media reported on Saturday.
Twenty-five years ago, the shopping list of young couples planning to get married consisted of a wardrobe, bed and bedding, some candy and cigarettes, Xinhua news agency said.
Their children are much more demanding and easily spend 200 000 yuan ($24 000), equivalent to the life savings of the previous generation, it said, citing a survey from northern Tianjin city.
The splash begins at the wedding, when they hire professional toastmasters and rent long lines of chauffeur-driven limousines, buy expensive jewellery and clothes, and fly off on costly honeymoons, Xinhua said.
When they return, they pay an average 115 000 yuan ($14 000) in down payment for an apartment, and go on to spend thousands of dollars more on televisions, air conditioners and electric appliances, according to the agency.
Xinhua linked the spending habits of young Chinese to the emergence of the ”one-child generation”, the result of the country’s policy of allowing each couple in the cities only one child to reduce population growth.
The members of this generation are used to getting what they want and have experienced little of the austerity seen by earlier generations who grew up in huge families with numerous siblings. — Sapa-AFP