China cracks down on costly ‘bride price’ custom to boost falling birth rate

A couple has their wedding photographs taken while walking along the Bund in Shanghai, China. The increasing unaffordability of marriage is one of the key reasons that fewer people are getting married and having children. - Bloomberg

BEIJING (Bloomberg): China’s latest attempt at boosting its flagging birth rate is a crackdown on an expensive wedding custom. Few people - including officials themselves - expect the measure to make a difference.

Betrothal gift, or caili, is a tradition where the groom-to-be pays a "bride price” to the woman’s family to demonstrate his sincerity and wealth, while also compensating them for raising a daughter in a country that has long favoUred sons.