China bride price experiment promotes women living with future husbands to test compatibility before cash changes hands
- County offers financial support to families who keep bride price low
- One participant says she hopes to set precedent for her sons
As China continues to clamp down on the payment of excessive bride prices and dowries, the authorities in one province are employing unique measures.
In February, Chongyi county in the eastern province of Jiangxi introduced a policy offering financial support across 10 areas of society, and one of them included helping to cover bride prices not exceeding 39,000 yuan (US$5,400).
The new approach has sparked an intense debate in the country and prompted doubts that the “experiment” would work.
One woman, Yu Fei, who had already been through a divorce and had two children, decided to live with her current husband before receiving the bride price.
In her village of Lingang, the average bride price – a sum of money traditionally paid by a man to the bride’s family – is between 700,000 and 800,000 yuan (US$97,000 to US$110,000), far higher than most places in China.