Elderly Chinese couples renew marriage vows

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More and more Chinese couples over the age of 70 are choosing to renew their marriage vows.

Zhuge Junhong and Yu Manpo, who have been married for 65 years, celebrated their diamond anniversary in style. They were one of the 100 couples who publicly said "I do" again in a lavish wedding ceremony followed by a party that was hosted by the retirement home where they live.

Their first union on July 1, 1953, could not have been more different to the celebration they had last October. There were no wedding frills back then. They got married in a small town in Guangdong in south China and had no money for a grand wedding. There was no formal ceremony, no flamboyant white dress and no photographer to take the official photos.

Zhuge Junhong and Yu Manpo at the ceremony for the renewal of their vows /CGTN Photo

Instead they had a simple party that was organized by their comrades and the Russians who lived in the area during the 50s as foreign aid workers.

Zhuge explained, “We didn’t have any fancy dresses so we just found some clean casual wear. It was just a small gathering of friends and colleagues and our leader gave a speech, which formalized the marriage. The Russians asked us to kiss but we were really conservative, not like today’s people. It was embarrassing but everyone was asking so we kissed anyway, as a polite gesture.”

CGTN's Jenny Cortes Ybanez posing with the couple /CGTN Photo

After the wedding, the couple, who worked as translators for the Russians, did not even have a honeymoon. They were separated soon after their big day as they were assigned to new posts in different parts of the country.

Zhuge and Yu lived during a time when the country’s goals were more of a priority than personal ambition, so duty to country was above everything else. They clicked when they first met because they both shared that same view.

Zhuge Junhong and Yu Manpo at their "wedding" party /CGTN Photo

Fast-forward six decades later and life in China is much better for Zhuge and Yu as well as for the rest of the country. So this time around the couple decided to renew their vows, not because they shared the same goals and interests, but because of their long-lasting love for each other.

And this time the red carpet was rolled out for them – and rightly so. Yu got to have the white wedding dress she never had, their ceremony and party was held at a grand hotel, and it was filmed for posterity.

“We’ve been working all our lives and never had a real formal wedding," Zhuge said. "Now we have pictures to commemorate our love. And we can show them to our kids and grandkids, and tell them, even though we are old, we’re still pretty.”

Whether the wedding was big or small, either way the couple have a successful marriage. And what's the secret? Working and solving problems together, they said.