Getting married isn't cheap in China.In Da'anliu,a small farming village outside Beijing,the local“bride price”—the fee that a groom's family pays to a bride's in advance of their nuptials—recently breached the $30,000 's extreme for a village where incomes average $2,900 per year.So,this summer,local officials decreed that bride prices and associated wedding expenses shouldn't exceed $2,900.

在中国结婚并不便宜。在北京城外以农耕为主的小村庄大安六村，当地的“彩礼”——新郎家在举办婚礼前给新娘家的一笔钱——最近突破了3 万美元大关。对于年均收入2900 美元的农村家庭来说，这笔费用过于高昂。因此，今年夏天村政府规定彩礼和相关的婚礼费用不应超过2900美元。

2 Out-of-control bride prices play to official and popular Chinese anxieties over the country's plummeting1plummet 暴跌。marriage and birth are those fears stronger than in China's countryside,home to millions of involuntary bachelors,often known as“bare branches.”High bride prices,and the women who command them,are an easy target to blame for this supposed marriage crisis.

2 失控的彩礼一定程度上反映了中国政府和民众对结婚率和出生率大幅下降的忧虑。这种忧虑在中国农村最强烈，那里有数以百万计的男性无奈地沦为单身汉，俗称“光棍”。高额的彩礼以及伸手要彩礼的女性，很容易就被当成这场所谓的婚配危机的罪魁祸首。

3 The truth is more prices have existed in China as long as marriage ,more affulent families granted large sums as a mark of prestige; the money was often returned to the groom's family,or to the married couple in the form of material items for the new lower-income families,especially in rural areas,the bride price served as compensation for a wife's future service to her husband's family and wasn't returned in any meaningful real value was being exchanged,rural bride prices were typically higher.

3 然而实情更加复杂。在中国，彩礼是伴随着婚姻制度一同诞生的。传统上，较富裕的家庭会出很多钱以彰显派头;这些钱通常以给新居添置实物的形式返还给新郎的家人或新婚夫妇。对于低收入家庭，特别是在农村，聘礼被当作新娘日后侍奉丈夫家庭的补偿，不会有任何实质性的退还。由于存在真正的价值交换，农村的彩礼通常更多。

4 Rural Chinese were complaining about bride-price inflation as far back as the 1980s.In 2013,China Vanke Co.Ltd.,a major Chinese real estate developer,and SINA Corp.,developer of the Sina Weibo social network,created a national map of bride prices that quickly went viral online.

4 早在1980年代，中国农村地区就有人抱怨彩礼礼金增长太甚。到2013年，中国大型房地产开发商万科股份有限公司和新浪微博社交网络的开发商新浪公司共同绘制了一张全国彩礼地图，该地图很快传遍网络。

5 These days,news stories,blogs and social media posts about bride prices,the lengths that families go to pay them,and the broken engagements,family tensions and financial crises that sometimes follow,are staples of China's prices in the hundreds of thousands of dollars are not uncommon and—among the rich—they can reach even higher.

5 如今，关于彩礼礼金、给付彩礼的周折以及有时随之而来的悔婚、家庭关系紧张和财政危机等话题的新闻报道、博客和帖子在网上层出不穷。数十万美元的彩礼并不罕见，富人结婚时礼金还会更高。

6 Yet,just as in the past,the most expensive bride prices on average continue to be charged in China's less-affluent factors are to ,decades of coercive2coercive 强制的。family-planning policies and centuries of traditional preferences for male children have skewed China's gender China's countryside,so-called“bachelor villages”are reportedly home to 150 boys for every 100 ,at least,these shortages drive up the value of single women.

6 然而，和以前一样，往往不太富裕的地区彩礼礼金最高，归咎于以下几个因素：首先，数十年的强制性计划生育政策和千百年来的重男轻女传统日渐扭曲了中国的性别平衡。据报道，在中国农村，所谓的“光棍村”里，男孩总数是女孩的1.5 倍。至少在理论上这种短缺会抬高未婚女性的身价。

7 At the same time,economic reforms that began in the 1970s allowed millions of women to migrate for work to China's booming coastal even chose to migrate for marriage,usually to wealthier regions with better economic prospects and hard-to-obtain residence permits entitling their families to better schools and other urban services.

7 与此同时，从1970年代开始的经济改革使数以百万计的妇女得以到中国繁荣的沿海工厂务工。有些女性甚至选择去异地结婚，通常是冲着在经济前景更好的富裕地区获得来之不易的居留许可，使其子女享受更好的教育和其他城市服务。

文章来源：《农民致富之友》 网址: http://www.nmzfzyzz.cn/qikandaodu/2021/0330/626.html