Twenty-first Century Dynasty (2001-2012) China Marriage Culture Studies

Chinese marriage culture in the beginning of the twenty-first century (2001—2012) is a part of contemporary Chinese social culture. The evolution of it is related to people’s daily lives, reflected contemporary social movements. In order to provide historical thinking space for solving current marriage problems, the article, with rich content of newspapers data, made an overall study which focused on the evolution of Chinese marriage culture in the beginning of the twenty-first century from the perspective of socio-cultural history.During this period, Chinese marriage culture changed significantly. First, the marriage institution stepped into intensive adjustment. Several marriage laws and regulations have issued. Upon the whole, under the guidance of legislative spirit which is called "return to the civil law", it became the main direction for the evolution of the marriage institution that respecting personal right, limiting official right and protecting the freedom of marriage further. It reflected people’s enhanced independent consciousness of marriage. Second, dramatic changes in the relationship between urban and rural areas made the rural marriage under the throes of transition. The mating relationship of different sex which retained a dynamic balance in the past was seriously off-balance. The economic and social foundations which sustained the traditional amative mode and marriage lifestyle were impacted by practical reasons. It affected the marriage choice of the rural population. Some dormant traditional views reappeared or mutated, including several undesirable marriage customs. At last, because the level of urbanization increased substantially, a series of modernistic factors rapidly integrated into the marriage of the urban population. The marriage values of the younger generation in the urban area internally changed. Suspending marriage and maintaining single became an acceptable private option. But the expansion of single group led to the spread of marriage anxiety. And the ideas collide between generations were highlighted. It made "the new time of blind dates" closely followed, different kind of cultural phenomenon in blind dates emerged strongly. The material culture in it caused fierce controversies and objectively caused appearance of "the naked marriage". Besides, influenced by the modern ideas, some subversive marriage lifestyle began to gain in popularity in the urban area.The above content of the marriage cultural evolution is inextricably linked with the changes in several social field of contemporary China, such as the economy, the science, the technology, the views and so on. The source of every new marriage cultural phenomenon can be found in these fields, and the future direction of every new marriage cultural phenomenon will be determined by the development of these social movements in the future.