Illustration: Liu Xiangya/GT

Giving up the offer to have a fairy-tale wedding at a posh hotel,MKS sports 28-year-old painter Yan Ge in Chongqing is planning to marry his girlfriend at a small village house during the upcoming New Year's holiday season. 

The new couple's wedding will not have lavish and disposable floral arrangements nor follow the tradition of getting gifts of money from friends and family. Yan told the Global Times that they will decorate the venue with a few of his oil paintings, while his grandmother, a village teacher, will host the ceremony. Most importantly, this arrangement satisfies he and his wife's idea of a "dream wedding."

Yan's "frugal" nuptials may stem from his personal style, but it also represents an increasing social phenomenon. 

More and more young Chinese couples are starting to move away from formalized weddings by embracing personalized and minimalist events. 

According to a 2024 survey conducted by the China Youth Daily Social Survey Center involving 1,251 young participants, 78.4 percent of respondents favor hosting minimalist weddings.

Not long ago, the topic of "young Chinese people revolutionizing weddings" have trended on Sina Weibo. Casual dining venues like McDonald's and Haidilao hot pot have replaced posh hotels to become choices for wedding venues. 

Some young couples have even started using AI tools to make wedding plans. Technology is making weddings more flexible, personalized and cost-effective, be it the schedule or effort involved. 

These nuptial plans may look offbeat, but they reflect how modern attitudes toward marriage are evolving across Chinese society, leading to lifestyle sustainability, updated traditions and marriage policy guidance. 

Traditionally, a wedding is recognized by many in China as "a major event in life." To match its importance, old Chinese weddings praise grandeur on multiple levels such as decorations, a fancy banquet and expensive outfits. Chen Mengting, a wedding planner, told the Global Times that "a high-end Chinese wedding can cost more than 100,000 yuan ($13,790) to 300,000 yuan," and the price will rise even further in first-tier cities like Shanghai and Beijing. 

Traditional weddings are indeed glamorous, but the hindering drawback of extravagance appears to have become outdated for today's social ethos of preserving the environment and sustainability. 

Following the country's widely promoted green agendas like "green commuting" and "using resources moderately" to cut carbon footprint, sustainable lifestyles are becoming imprinted on many young people's belief systems and subsequently guide them when they make life choices like planning weddings. 

For instance, young couples have started to use wedding corsages and decorations made from biodegradable and recyclable materials.

Therefore, taking Yan's village wedding as an example, its rustic nature does not suggest the event is "poor" or "low-end." Instead, it is fashionable since their mind-set keeps with the latest social trends. 

Another way to view this is that the eco-friendly attitudes displayed by the bride and groom at their wedding can influence the attendees, making a wedding a small window for promoting social sustainable living.

Other than this emerging eco-friendly lifestyle, young Chinese's new marital attitudes are also the result of reflecting on traditional marriage customs such as "high bride prices." 

"Bride price" is the monetary or material gift the groom's family gives to the bride's family. However, this has led many young people to reconsider this custom.

According to a survey published by zhenai.com, a popular Chinese online matchmaking service, more than 65 percent of participants said they accept the concept of "zero bride price." 

This shows that young people are willing to update the wedding traditions and making the "bride price" a fair gift that truly is in line with its original intention - showing goodwill to the new couple. 

Not only have customs like the "bride price" been updated, other concepts such as demanding the groom have a car and a home have also changed. Such a new attitude reduces the pressure on the groom to flaunt wealth to show his love. 

However, the demolition of old marriage concepts has a deeper significant, as it also helps to foster a sense of equality between husband and wife. 

These new terms reflect the fact that young Chinese people are attempting to establish their own wedding formats by pursuing a modern "sense of ritual" in marriage. 

This modern "sense of ritual" actually stems from China's efforts to provide guidance in the field of marital culture. 

In February, a regulation focusing on bride price disputes was introduced by the Supreme People's Court in November 2023. 

The regulation had new changes such as a prohibition against acquiring property through marriage and clarified the distinction between betrothal gifts and general gifts exchanged during courtship. 

Such policy guidance acts not only like an umbrella that protects both the groom and bride, but reflects the attention Chinese officials pay to people's marriage life. 

These modern marriage forms therefore are not only designed by a particular group of people, but are rather being co-written by the country and its citizens.

The author is a reporter with the Global Times. [email protected]