Pressure at the Table: China’s Lunar New Year Marriage Squeeze

Each Lunar New Year, China’s great family reunion doubles as a season of interrogation for millions of unmarried young people. Known as cuihun, the ritual pressure to marry has intensified just as economic strain, career demands, and changing values push marriage and childbearing to historic lows. In this episode, we explore how private family expectations now intersect with a state anxious about population decline, why traditional scripts no longer fit modern lives, and how young Chinese are devising creative—and sometimes desperate—ways to survive the holiday gauntlet. The story captures a generational standoff played out at the dinner table, revealing how love, duty, and demographic fear collide in a rapidly changing society.https://www.economist.com/china/2023/01/26/chinese-singles-face-the-heat-over-the-holiday