A golden age of weddings |
金色的结婚浪潮 |
www.i21st.cn |
BY sylvie_jy from 21st Century Published 2009-12-11 |
![]() A photographic assistant makes final adjustments to an engaged Chinese couple posing for their wedding photographs dressed in 'royal' costumes at a studio in central Beijing November 27, 2009.
![]() An engaged Chinese couple pose for their wedding photographs dressed in cowboy gear, holding a toy gun and with a rugged 'Wild West' landscape behind them at a studio in central Beijing November 27, 2009.
![]() An engaged Chinese couple pose for their wedding photographs at a studio in central Beijing November 27, 2009.
![]() 在全球金融危机重创出口、银行及保险等行业的背景下,中国婚庆产业逆市强劲增长。
Meng Ni and Fan Zhiqing said "I do" to each other in the same month that they said "we do" to their real estate agent. China is in the midst of a golden age of weddings, a boon for businesses from photo studios to global platinum miners. Yet nowhere is the economic impact so potentially profound as in the housing market. A flood of newlyweds such as Meng and Fan buying their first homes could help power China's property sales for years, even as some investors fear that prices are already in dangerous bubble territory. What makes it more powerful is that Meng and Fan are part of a demographic bulge of people in their twenties who will be of prime marrying age between now and 2015. Analysts estimate such couples could mop up as much as 450 million square meters of housing every year, or roughly 16 percent of all that is under construction at present. Big Business The Xidan Wedding Mall in the heart of Beijing offers three floors of dress makers, jewellery merchants and photo studios. "A bride usually buys two gowns: a white one in the Western style, used for the procession and vows, and a traditional Chinese one in red for the banquet," said Ying Zi, a saleswoman at Modern Bazaar, a dress shop in the mall. A few years ago, brides often rented their clothes. Ying said almost all of her customers were now buying the dresses, which cost at least 2,000 yuan ($293) each. Diamonds are also hot. Chen Yin's family began crafting diamond rings at home for a niche market a decade ago. Now they run a shop, Bling Jewellery, selling hundreds a month. The wedding boom has not escaped the government's notice. China Association of Social Workers, a government agency, established the Wedding Industry Committee in 2003 to gather data and set standards. The number of weddings, about 10 million in 2008, is increasing by 10 percent a year, while spending is rising 20 percent, according to Shi Kanning, the committee chief. No Crisis "The global financial crisis hit a lot of industries: exporters, banks, insurance. But not only was the wedding industry not affected, it has had even stronger growth over the past year," Shi said. This resilience, he said, spilled over to the property market, with newlyweds buying homes when other business dried up. He pointed to surveys by the China Index Research Institute, which show that three-quarters of first-time home buyers are below the age of 35. Fuelled By Parents In the meantime, it is frugal parents, not the young couple and not banks, who often foot much of the bill for new homes. Armed with a lifetime of savings and with just one child, parents are only too willing to lend a hand -- and sometimes twice. Wang Dajian and Niu Xiaoxia said they recently purchased a second Beijing apartment for their 29-year-old son and his wife after the first one they had bought failed to entice the young couple out of the parents' home. The newlyweds found the first apartment "inconvenient" for their jobs, their parents said, because it required a 30-minute commute from their offices. "They should be independent. They should be responsible for their own lives," lamented Niu, who noted that when she and Wang married they had to wait more than two years after marrying before their work unit arranged for a tiny one-room apartment. "I want to push them out, to make them suffer a little like we had to," Wang said with a wave of determination that quickly melted. "But the problem is, when we see him suffer, we feel bad. I don't blame them, because all this resulted from us. We are responsible because we spoiled them." ![]() (Translator & Editor: Sylvie AND Grace)
http://www.i21st.cn/story/684.html |
辞海拾贝
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