Unhappy valentines

Ask a Chinese person what foreign holidays he or she is familiar with. Usually Christmas is No 1, closely followed by Valentine's Day. For yuppies, expressing the romantic feeling through flowers, chocolate and candles has become part of modern courtship.

But fun and serious commitment apparently do not always go well together. In China, Valentine's Day is gaining popularity amid a rising divorce rate. This year, two million couples may file for divorce under a law promulgated in April 2001. A simple no-fault case can be processed in 10 minutes. On the first day after the Lunar New Year holiday, Beijing's district courts became rendezvous places for couples whose marriages did not survive the holidays.

At the Chaoyang district court, 25 couples applied for divorce and 60 sought counselling. In Chongwen, 70 per cent of the cases accepted were for divorce, the Beijing Morning News reported.

The Lunar New Year holiday was an ordeal for a young couple who were married only last year. The row began when both families wanted them for the family reunion, the first since their wedding. The extreme family pressure meant compromise was impossible, so each spent New Year's eve with their own parents and shuttled among relatives over the following days. Tension rose over how much 'lucky money' to put into the red envelope and what gifts to bring. Once the word 'divorce' was uttered as a threat, the sad episode reached its climax. So there they were, glum and petulant, in court.

Family court judge Cao Zhigang had seen many such cases. Holidays are highly stressful, and a minor spark could set off an explosion. Some marriages go beyond the possibility of reconciliation, while some couples teeter on the brink of divorce but are unable to break the news to their parents and relatives.

Family and social pressure is also strong on Valentine's Day, as young women feel depressed without a bouquet from a suitor, while parents urge their sons and daughters to tie the knot. Beijing's popular Consumer's Guide newspaper lamented in its February 14 issue, 'Can we leave out feelings for each other and just have some fun?'