City 'good life' fuels rural disintegration

By Wan Linxin  |   2008-7-18  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

Illustration by Zhou Tao More in cartoon gallery

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IF you think urbanites tend to divorce more than rural residents, you are wrong.

There are indications that rural residents are rapidly catching up in terms of divorce, if nowhere else.

The causes are many, but family disintegration is mainly a result of long-term separation between spouses as one or both of them seek their fortune in cities as migrant workers.

It is estimated that there are over 10 million rural migrant workers.

For decades governments at all levels have been encouraging rural residents to embrace the "good life'' in cities.

This liberal supply of cheap labor has been fueling China's economic expansion - at a cost.

Policy makers have been very interested in their cheap labor, but rather indifferent to these workers' obligations as husbands, wives, children and parents.

The rising divorce rate is just one result. As the children and elderly parents are left behind to fend for themselves, they suffer too.

Statistics from courts in Nanyang, Henan Province, suggest that the rate of rural divorce in the area has climbed from 29 percent in 2004 to 35 percent in 2006, representing an annual rise of 5.4 percent.

Statistics from Jintan in Jiangsu Province suggest that from 2001 to 2003 the number of rural divorce cases handled by the courts grew by 20 percent annually.

Such trends become more manifest in areas where there are more migrant workers - for instance Sichuan Province, Chongqing Municipality and Anhui Province.

Investigation shows that the majority of rural divorce cases involve spouses who work as migrant workers.

Rural China used to be the bastion of traditional values, where patriarchal authority and family loyalty were strong.

Young couples were under strong obligation to show gratitude to their parents, and respect for their family and village elders.