Are These Couples Turning Traditional Marriage on Its Head?

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China’s “two-sided marriages” are about more than just matrimony. In much of China, the rise of the single-child family has challenged the country’s traditional emphasis on male heirs and family-based eldercare. Now families in some regions, such as the wealthy eastern provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, are responding by embracing a new kind of matrimony. Known as the “two-sided marriage,” or liang tou hun , this relationship form represents a break from traditional marriage. Instead of a woman being married into a man’s family, two-sided marriages are more contractual: No bride prices or dowries are exchanged, and couples agree to have two children, one of which will take their father’s family name and the other their mother’s. Most two-sided marriage prenuptial agreements also stipulate that the couple will jointly inherit the property of both sets of parents — and assume responsibility for caring for them as they age. In 2023, I traveled to a village in a southe ………………………………