Whenever my friends return home for the holidays (in China, that’s the New Year, Spring or Autumn Festival), they always end up calling me and complaining about the same thing:
“Jennifer, my mom is at it again–I’m still not married, and she says I should be!”
Many young people in China face the same kind of pressure when they return home for a holiday. They return home to relax, eat, have fun, and end up hearing a lot about the fact that they are still not yet married.
Is this common in your country, too? It is common in many countries. When it comes to China, we have a specific vocabulary that addresses this exact issue:
催婚 (cuīhūn): pressing/urging someone to get married.
So where does this vocabulary come from?
催 (cuī): v. encourage/urge/press; it can also be used to mean things like expediting.
婚 (hūn): n. marriage.
Jīntiān wǒ yòu bèi bàmā cuīhūn le.
今天 我 又 被 爸妈 催婚 了。
Today I was urged to get married by my parents.
Bèi cuīhūn de gǎnjué hěn bùhǎo.
被 催婚 的 感觉 很 不好。
The feeling of being urged to get married is not a good one.
In China, the majority of parents hope their children can get married at an earlier age (before the age of 30). Parents in general feel anxiety if their children haven’t get married around 30 years old or earlier. Normally, parents urge the child to get married via many different methods. One way is by asking their relatives and friends to help find a proper marriage partner. Or parents will go to the “相亲角 (xiāngqīn jiǎo) Matchmaking Corner” to post “征婚 (zhēnghūn) marriage-seeking” ads for their children.
Have you ever heard of “相亲角 (xiāngqīn jiǎo) Matchmaking Corner”?
Nǎlǐ yǒu xiāngqīnjiǎo ā?
哪里 有 相亲角 啊？
Where is the matchmaking corner?
Nǐ qù xiāngqīnjiǎo le ma?
你 去 相亲角 了 吗？
Did you go to the matchmaking corner?
Look at the image above to see Changsha Matchmaking Corner in Martyrs’ Park. Many parents posted “征婚 (zhēnghūn) marriage-seeking” ads for their single children. You can see the very detailed information include job, age, health condition, personal property situation(houses, cars), contact information, etc. If you are in China and single, you may try it out and post an ad yourself!
1. Yesterday, I went to the People Park to post “征婚 (zhēnghūn) marriage-seeking” ads for my unmarried son.
According to the sentence above, it is clear the People Park is a(n) ____.
A. 英语角 (yīngyǔ jiǎo)
B. 相亲角 (xiāngqīn jiǎo)
C. 汉语角 (hànyǔ jiǎo)
Jennifer Zhu is a professional Chinese teacher from eChineseLearning. She has many years of Chinese language teaching experience and received her B.A. and M.A. in “Teaching Chinese as a Second Language.”