Teen marriage sparks heated debate in China

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Recently, a video featuring a teenage couple’s wedding in Hainan, China, went viral online.

Based on the video, this baby-faced couple dressed in red, a color typically used at weddings, got married in front of their family members. Reportedly they were not officially registered in the local government since neither of them is of the legal age to marry in China.

Wedding of the Hainan teenage couple, screenshot from the video

The video also revealed that even covered under layers of a wedding dress, the bride appeared to be pregnant, which was later confirmed to be true.

“Do they even know how to parent a kid at such a young age?” @zpdzydxkazzy3 commented on Weibo, one of China’s most popular social media.

Wedding of the Hainan teenage couple, screenshot from the video

Teenage marriage is not rare in China, especially in the countryside area. Two 16-year-old teenagers held their wedding in Guangxi last year. Both the bride and the bridegroom had quit school and started working. They said that they would get officially registered when both of them reached the legal age to marry.

“We’ve known each other for more than one year and will get married sooner or later, so we decided to have our wedding feast first,” said the bride Xiaowu, according to a local media.

The bridegroom Xiaozhang also expressed that their families totally supported them.

16-year-old couple in Guangxi, photo from Gucheng.com

Many rural families with low incomes normally choose to set up early marriages for their children so as to relieve the family’s financial burden.

Due to a severe population gap of 33,600,000 between male and female in China, getting married early can ensure families that their children won’t be single for the rest of their life.