

To some Chinese young people, the fears for marriage also stem from the difficulty of getting out of it – especially when the relationship turns abusive. “Therefore, many victims couldn’t receive effective and timely help, and many preventable tragedies of domestic violence were not stopped in time.” “Violence between family members is not treated with the same level of importance as violence between strangers…It’s often dealt with lightly by the police and the courts,” she said. While the legislation has brought some progress on protecting victims and raising social awareness of domestic violence, experts say its enforcement remains patchy and often ineffective, partly due to the country’s deep-rooted patriarchal culture and long-existing barriers in the judicial system.įeng, the feminist scholar, said in many places police still treat domestic violent cases as a family affair. It authorized courts to issue protection orders for victims and police to issue written warnings against abusers.

The law defines domestic violence for the first time, covering both physical and psychological violence – though it fails to address sexual abuse such as marital rape. After two decades of advocacy by women’s rights activists, the country finally imposed its anti-domestic violence law in 2016. In China, domestic violence has traditionally been regarded as a private family matter. Volunteers in Ma Anshan city, Anhui province sign their names on a banner against domestic violence on December 14, 2011. “Given its prevalence, domestic violence is an issue everyone knows about, even if they have not encountered it themselves.” “While marriage can bring some benefits, it is actually more of a constraint on women, and more and more women have become aware of this,” said Feng Yuan, a feminist scholar and co-founder of Equality, an advocacy group for women’s rights and gender equality in Beijing. Such sentiments pose a potential challenge for the Chinese government, which has struggled to reverse the country’s nosediving rates of marriages and births in the face of a population crisis.Īn increasing number of young people are delaying or shunning marriage entirely, due to its associated financial burdens and entrenched gender inequalities. Others cited a saying trending in popularity among young Chinese women: “Keep yourself safe by staying away from marriage and childbirth.” “No wonder everyone is afraid of marriage now,” said one popular comment on Weibo with more than 4,000 likes. In online discussions, these cases are increasingly cited by young people as a cautionary tale for entering into marriage, given what many see as inadequate protection for domestic violent victims and the difficulty of getting out of abusive marriages.

The case came to light after the woman posted about her case on social media, where she said he had attacked her 16 times during their two years of marriage. The wife had reportedly suffered years of domestic violence and was planning on a divorce, her family told state media outlet The Paper.Īnd last week, another case emerged, involving a woman in the southwestern metropolis of Chengdu who said she had spent eight days in an intensive care unit after being attacked by her husband in a hotel room in April – because he found out she was applying for divorce and a protection order in court, according to state media reports. Last month, a man in the southern province of Guangdong stabbed his wife and her sister in law to death. Many were appalled by the level of cruelty on display in the attack, which follows two other high-profile domestic violence and homicide cases involving women victims that have caught public attention. In a statement late on Tuesday, police in Dongying city said a 37-year-old man had been detained after he hit and crushed his 38-year-old wife to death over “family disputes.” The case was still under investigation, it added.īy Wednesday morning, the attack had become the top trending topic on China’s Twitter-like Weibo, racking up 300 million views. On multiple occasions the man exits his car to check whether the woman is still alive, before continuing the attack. In the video, a man is seen repeatedly driving a car over a woman – later identified by police as his wife. The killing in the eastern province of Shandong came to widespread public attention Monday after footage filmed by a witness was posted online.

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A series of high-profile domestic violence cases in China, including a killing carried out in broad daylight that was captured on video and circulated widely on social media, has sparked outrage – and reignited a debate among young people about the pitfalls of marriage.
