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Family relationships

Divorce: a love story

While the government talks up family values, marriage break-ups are soaring
Jan 23rd 2016 | CHONGQING | From the print edition

soar: to rise swiftly
e.g. After news of the possible acquisition broke, Crumbs' stock soared 990% from 3 cents to almost 35 cents as of mid-morning trading. (Los Angeles Times Jul 10, 2014)

YANG YOURONG’s wife kicks him as they walk upstairs and he falls back a few steps, then follows again at a distance up to the cramped offices of a district-government bureau handling divorces in Chongqing, a region in the south-east. After more than 20 years of marriage, Mr Yang’s wife has had several affairs; she is “quick tempered”, he says (she had slapped him earlier, he claims). At the bureau, divorce takes half an hour and costs 9 yuan ($1.40). It is administered a few steps away from where other couples get married and take celebratory photographs. Mr Yang and his wife have second thoughts, however; they return home, still arguing. Most couples hesitate less.
具体描述一对夫妻去办理离婚的经过。

cramped: Restricted; narrowed.
e.g. Still, he was drawn to the cramped apartment where his birth mother, uncles and grandmother lived. (New York Times Dec 15, 2016)
have second thoughts: 改变主意；
e.g. The idea was preposterous and I determined not to give it a second thought.

Divorce rates are rising quickly across China. This is a remarkable transformation in a society where for centuries marriage was universal and mostly permanent (though convention permitted men to take concubines). Under Communist rule, traditional values have retained a strong influence over family relationships: during much of the Mao era, divorce was very unusual. It became more common in the 1980s, but a marriage law adopted in 1994 still required a reference from an employer or community leader. Not until 2003 were restrictions removed.
追溯新中国的离婚情况变化历史。

concubines: a woman in the past who lived with and had sex with a man who already had a wife or wives, but who was socially less important than the wives
e.g. Were these the royal concubines, buried near the deceased emperor to serve him in the next world as they had in this life?(National Geographic Oct 12, 2016)
reference: A statement about a person's qualifications, character, and dependability.
e.g. We will need references from your former employers.
Not until: 直到……才……
e.g. Not until we pointed out their fault to them did they realize it.

The trend reflects profound economic and social change. In the past 35 years, the biggest internal migration experienced by any country in human history has been tearing families apart. Traditional values have been giving way to more liberal ones. Women are becoming better educated, and more aware of their marital rights (they now initiate over half of all divorce cases). Greater affluence has made it easier for many people to contemplate living alone—no longer is there such an incentive to stay married in order to pool resources.
离婚潮背后的经济和社会原因。

tear apart: 撕裂；
e.g. The unpredictable ebbs and flows of the world economy often threatened to tear apart the integrity of small and weak states.
give way to: 让位于，被……替代
e.g. Those initial existential concerns have given way to a new debate over the “normalization” of Trump and Trumpism in the wake of his election.(The New Yorker Nov 29, 2016)
marital: Of or relating to marriage
e.g. “I can’t remember the last time I cared so much about the marital prospects of a fictional character,” A. O. Scott wrote in The Times.(New York Times Dec 22, 2016)
contemplate: to think about something that you might do in the future
e.g. The promoter of Michael Jackson's comeback concerts had contemplated a worldwide tour for the entertainer.
incentive: Something, such as the fear of punishment or the expectation of reward, that induces action or motivates effort.
e.g. And yet the system of incentives that drives academic advancement—grants, publications, and tenure decisions—rarely rewards openness.(The New Yorker Dec 26, 2016)
pool: to combine your money, ideas, skills etc with those of other people so that you can all use them
e.g. Tradition dictates that prize money is pooled and distributed among the team members.(Seattle Times Jul 11, 2014)

As long as both sides agree on terms, China is now among the easiest and cheapest places in the world to get a divorce. In many Western countries, including Britain, couples must separate for a period before dissolving a marriage; China has no such constraints. In 2014, the latest year for which such data exist, about 3.6m couples split up—more than double the number a decade earlier (they received a red certificate, pictured, to prove it). The divorce rate—the number of cases per thousand people—also doubled in that period. It now stands at 2.7, well above the rate in most of Europe and approaching that of America, the most divorce-prone Western country (see chart). Chongqing’s rate, 4.4, is higher than America’s.
用数据和对比说明离婚潮之汹涌。

agree on terms: 达成一致；
e.g. The two sides have been unable to agree on the terms of a power-sharing arrangement to break the political deadlock gripping the country since a disputed presidential election in late December.

Helped by the huge movement of people from the countryside into cities, and the rapid spread of social media, the availability of potential mates has grown with astonishing speed, both geographically and virtually. But many migrants marry in their home villages and often live apart from their spouses for lengthy periods. This has contributed to a big increase in extramarital liaisons. Married people previously had limited opportunities to meet members of the opposite sex in social situations, according to research by Li Xiaomin of Henan University. Peng Xiaobo, a divorce lawyer in Chongqing, reckons 60-70% of his clients have had affairs.
城市化和信息化浪潮推动了婚外情的浪潮。

lengthy: continuing for a long time, often too long
e.g. Like many a lengthy novel, it might have worked better as a television series.(Seattle Times Jul 10, 2014)
liaison: a secret sexual relationship between a man and a woman, especially a man and a woman who are married but not to each other
e.g. They tell stories of love and heartbreak, illicit sexual liaisons, mental-health crises, political and religious conversions, financial anxieties and disappointed hopes.(Washington Post Jul 06, 2014)
reckon: to think or suppose something
e.g. The Gulf Centre for Human Rights, based in Beirut, reckons the region has become more hostile towards activists in the past year.(Economist Jul 10, 2014)

Such behaviour has led to much soul-searching. The notion that “chopsticks come in pairs” is still prevalent; propaganda posters preach Confucian-style family virtues using pictures of happy, multi-generation families. (President Xi Jinping is on his second marriage but this is rarely mentioned.) Many commentators in the official media talk of separation as a sign of moral failure; they fret that it signifies the decline of marriage, and of family as a social unit—a threat, as they see it, to social stability and even a cause of crime. The spread of “Western values” is often blamed.
婚外情浪潮带来的反思。

soul-searching: 反思
propaganda: information which is false or which emphasizes just one part of a situation, used by a government or political group to make people agree with them
e.g. There was almost no independent media left in the country and the intensity of state propaganda rivaled even the Soviet days.(Time Dec 26, 2016)
fret: to worry about something, especially when there is no need
The Germans like rules and discipline, and fret about excessive debt and the moral hazard created by bail-outs.(Economist Dec 08, 2016)

But marriage is not losing its lustre. In most countries, rising divorce rates coincide with more births out of wedlock and a fall in marriage rates. China bucks both these trends. Remarriage is common too. The Chinese have not fallen out of love with marriage—only with each other.
结婚率并没有降低，中国人还是喜欢结婚。

lustre: the quality that makes something interesting or exciting
e.g. And indeed Chinese entrepreneurs are gradually becoming victims as their brands acquire lustre.(Economist Jun 20, 2016)
** coincide with**: 与……一致
e.g. He gave great encouragement to his students, especially if their passions happened to coincide with his own.

wedlock: the state of being married
e.g. No one could have predicted that something like 70 percent of black births would be out of wedlock.(Salon Nov 13, 2016)
buck: to oppose something in a direct way
e.g. Hidden Figures, both a dazzling piece of entertainment and a window into history, bucks the trend of the boring-math-guy movie.(Time Dec 23, 2016)

It is tradition itself that is partly to blame for rising divorce rates. China’s legal marriage age for men, 22, is the highest in the world. But conservative attitudes to premarital relationships result in Chinese youths having fewer of them than their counterparts in the West (they are urged to concentrate on their studies and careers, rather than socialise or explore). Living together before marriage is still rare, although that is changing among educated youngsters. People still face social pressure to marry in their 20s. Their inexperience makes it more than usually difficult for them to select a good partner.
传统带来的影响。

socialize: to spend time with other people in a friendly way
e.g. It was — and I found this shocking because socializing is usually stressful for me — an exhale moment.(New York Times Dec 14, 2016)

Couples’ ageing relatives are part of the problem too. Yan Yunxiang of the University of California, Los Angeles, says “parent-driven divorce” is becoming more common. As a result of China’s one-child-per-couple policy (recently changed to a two-child one), many people have no siblings to share the burden of looking after parents and grandparents. Thus couples often find themselves living with, or being watched over by, several—often contending—elders. Mr Yan says the older ones’ interference fuels conjugal conflict. Sometimes parents urge their children to divorce their partners as a way to deal with rifts.
长辈的影响。

watched over: 监督；
e.g.These websites offer young people the information and tools they need to watch over their money.

conjugal: relating to marriage
e.g. Many of these communities sought to regulate conjugal relations.(The New Yorker Sep 26, 2016)
rift: a situation in which two people or groups have had a serious disagreement and begun to dislike and not trust each other
e.g. The most bruising presidential election in modern history lifted the curtain on the nation’s deep family rift — just in time for Thanksgiving and Christmas.(Seattle Times Dec 23, 2016)

Women are more likely to be the ones who suffer financially when this happens. Rising divorce rates reflect the spread of more tolerant, permissive values towards women, but legislation tends to favour men in divorce settlements. A legal interpretation issued in 2003 says that if a divorce is disputed, property bought for one partner by a spouse’s parents before marriage can revert to the partner alone. That usually means the husband’s family: they often try to increase their child’s ability to attract a mate by buying him a home.
妇女遭受的影响。

issue: to officially make a statement, give an order, warning etc
e.g. Bhatia, who acts both in Bollywood films and regional Tamil cinema, immediately issued a public statement and demanded an apology from the director.(BBC Dec 27, 2016)
revert to: if land or a building reverts to its former owner, it becomes their property again
e.g. Of course, if it does go bankrupt, the project itself will revert back to the state. (Washington Post Nov 28, 2016)

In 2011 the Supreme Court went further. It ruled that in contested cases (as about one-fifth of divorces are), the property would be considered that of one partner alone if that partner’s parents had bought it for him or her after the couple had got married. In addition, if one partner (rather than his or her parents) had bought a home before the couple wed, that person could be awarded sole ownership by a divorce court. This ruling has put women at a disadvantage too: by convention they are less often ** named on deeds**.
进一步对妇女不利的影响。

contest: to formally oppose a decision or statement because you think it is wrong
e.g. However, some experts contested Ozerov’s claim, saying the crew’s failure to report a malfunction pointed at a possible terror attack.(Time Dec 25, 2016)
put ... at a disadvantage:使……处于不利；
e.g. A lack of regional cohesion will put the area at an economic disadvantage to the more dynamic markets of East Asia.

deed: a legal document that you sign, especially one that proves that you own a house or a building
e.g. Those rolls contained images of Dakota County’s mortgage documents and land deeds dating back to the 1850s.(Washington Times Dec 17, 2016)

In practice, if the couple has children the person with custody often keeps the home—more often the mother. Yet the court’s interpretation sets a worrying precedent for divorced women. Their difficulties may be compounded by the two-child policy, which came into effect on January 1st. If couples have two children and both partners want custody, judges often assign parents one child each. Marriage and the family are still strong in China—but children clearly lie in a different asset class.
离婚对孩子的影响。

in practice: 实际上；
e.g. This is certainly a theoretical risk but in practice there is seldom a problem.
custody: the right to take care of a child, given to one of their parents when they have divorced
e.g. The inmates often lose connections to the outside world, including custody of children.(Washington Times Dec 26, 2016)
compound: to make a difficult situation worse by adding more problems
e.g. Lack of sleep likely compounded her health problems.(Washington Times Dec 24, 2016)
come into effect: 生效；
e.g. This is certainly a theoretical risk but in practice there is seldom a problem.
asset: a thing of value, especially property, that a person or company owns, which can be used or sold to pay debts
e.g. The deal included the possibility of adjustments to the purchase price depending on the evaluation of the assets.(Wall Street Journal Dec 27, 2016)

From the print edition: China

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