Date Night China: Anti-Marriage Memes That Went Viral Ahead of Spring Festival

This article comes from Date Night China (WeChat ID: datenightchina), your guide to dating in China, from love to lust, first dates to worst dates, hilarious stories, and top tips to avoid (or steer into) disaster. Single in the city? Season 2 of their podcast is out now. To connect with others in the DNC community, add co-host Rachel to join their WeChat group: rachelweiss22

During Spring Festival, many young people returning home will face endless questions from relatives about their relationship status and when they will get married. There is even a phrase for it in Chinese: 催婚 cuīhūn (to pressure marriage). 

This pressure has given birth to the anti-cuihun Culture on the Chinese Internet.

For Chinese young people, when cuihun becomes a mental oppression, developing an anti-cuihun culture is their way of resistance. 

Two years ago, a video on Chinese major website Bilibili named 春节自救指南 (chūnjié zìjiù zhǐnán) meaning “Spring Festival Self-help Guide” went viral and was forwarded all over the internet, achieving over 20 million watches. 

The video’s official English name is “What I Do Is For Your Own Good”, which is a common saying used by Chinese parents when they lecture their children.

Rather than just being an amusing video with funny lyrics, it served as a stinging satire on the phenomenon of cuihun, and generated a new cultural trend, anti-cuihun. 

When a 28-year old single man who works in Beijing goes back to his hometown for Spring Festival, he will most likely be asked a series of personal questions by his family members and relatives, such as: 

“What’s your monthly salary?” “How much is your year-end bonus?” “Have you bought a house?” “Have you bought a car?” 

And also...

“Do you have a girlfriend now?” “Oh you have a girlfriend, where is she from, and what do her parents do?” “When are you getting married?” “When are you planning to have a baby?” “Why haven’t you gotten married?” “Why, why, why?”

It goes on and on and on and on...

When asked questions like these, one must feel uncomfortable, even mortified, feeling that their entire life is almost a failure. In western culture, it is totally okay to reply with two simple words: Fuck off. (Yes, we recognize this is hyperbole for many Western families, but you get the idea).

However, in Chinese culture, where respecting your elders is a creed to live by, this is simply not an option for young people. If you ever said that you don’t like those questions, your parents and relatives would predictably say, “What I say and do is for your own good, period."

So what do the Chinese young people do? They resist, in their own way. These are some of the popular memes created by young people and posted on social media like Wechat and Weibo. 

The humor and sarcasm in the above memes capture the sentiment of the anti-cuihun movement. Some young people save these memes just to mentally prepare for all those embarrassing questions and torturous interrogations from their relatives. 

READ: Date Night China: 12 years, 12 of Our Favorite Date Spots in Beijing

Images: Weibo