‘Child marriage’ at 16 ... but it’s true love: teenage couple’s wedding photos become internet sensation in China
Baby-faced youngsters hold traditional wedding ceremony and banquet with parents’s approval, but cannot be legally married for another six years
Photographs of a Chinese wedding banquet featuring a couple aged only 16 – too young to be legally married – have gone viral on the nation’s social media, a newspaper in China reports.
After pictures of the February 15 traditional ceremony in Guangxi province were posted on social media, the hashtag “#13 year-old boy becomes groom” became a hot topic in weibo, China’s version of Twitter, The Beijing News reported on Tuesday.
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One photo shows a baby-faced boy in a suit, beside his girl, wearing a white wedding dress. The couple are seated on a bed in a room cheerily decorated with brightly coloured balloons and ribbons.
He told the newspaper on Monday that he and his future wife,surnamed Wu, were both aged 16.
The legal age for marriage in China is 22 for men and 20 for women, so the couple could only hold a traditional wedding ceremony, and would have to wait another six years before they can be legally married in the eyes of the law.
Zhang said the holding of the traditional wedding ceremony had been approved by both sets of parents, who were also in favour of the couple living together.
The couple would apply for their marriage certificate once they reached the legal age, he said.
Despite their young age, the boy said, they “love each other truly”. So far, they had no plans to have children, he added.
Zhang said in a blog post on social media platform QQ that he did not regret leaving school to start work.
“It’s not that I don’t like going to school, but I know I don’t have the ability [to study well] and it will just be a waste of time and money if I continue,” he wrote. “My parents are farmers, so I know their money is earned from their blood and sweat, [so] how could I bear to squander that?”
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He also wrote that he did not approve of children from wealthy families, who squandered their youth and their parents’ hard-earned money.
“They know only the happiness of spending money, but will never experience the pains and struggles of earning it,” he said. “No matter how wronged I am, I will endure.”
Zhang said the aim of studying was to earn money and that since he was already earning money, it did not matter whether he studied or not. His goal was to eventually “become a boss”.
The newspaper report about the young couple’s wedding banquet attracted mostly positive comments from internet users, many of whom wished them good luck.
“Pure young love,” said one weibo comment. “Sincerely wish them a happy life with many children and grandchildren.”
Another comment said: “If the child isn’t a bright student, then an early marriage is quite good.”
A third one said: “Chinese people often long to have five generations together in the house, [so] the way to achieve that is to learn from this young couple.”
The date that he posted his comments on his blog was not given in the newspaper report. The full names of the couple were also not provided in the newspaper report.