Outside the Marriage Registration Office in Beijing's Chaoyang district, a young woman is handing out flyers for a company advertising wedding photography. But on this midweek morning, she is ignoring many of the couples entering and exiting the building in a steady stream.
'A lot of people come here to get married, but a lot come to get divorced, too,' she says.
It's not hard to spot the ones who have come here to get the stamp on their marriage certificates - actually little red booklets, this being the bureaucracy-obsessed mainland - that says they are now officially separated. Some couples are still arguing as they leave the building; others stop before going in, and one of the lingerers makes what is obviously a last-ditch plea not to end the marriage. Most, though, simply look downcast, making it clear they are not here to embark on a life of marital bliss.
Since August 13, when a fresh interpretation of the marriage law by the Supreme People's Court came into effect, many of the women leaving registration offices such as the one in Chaoyang have more than just the end of their marriage to bemoan. According to the new ruling, residential property will no longer be automatically regarded as being jointly owned and, therefore, divided equally in a divorce.
Previously, a 50/50 split was standard unless one party was guilty of bigamy, domestic violence or abandoning their partner and children. Now, whoever paid for the house or apartment gets to keep it in its entirety, regardless of which party wants to divorce and the circumstances that led to the decision.
On the mainland, rulings by the Supreme People's Court replace existing law. For the nation's top judges, the new ruling is an ambitious - some might say brutal and unsophisticated - attempt to shore up the crumbling institution of marriage and to rein in an obsession with property ownership. But by those who have made it the most talked-about subject among female users of Weibo, the mainland's version of Twitter, it has been dubbed 'the law that makes men laugh and women cry'.
Yang Yiyan can be forgiven a few tears. She comes out of the Chaoyang office with her now ex-husband, but they go their separate ways immediately. The 31-year-old travel agent was married for only two years.
