BEIJING: A woman in central China who accepted a betrothal gift of 200,000 yuan (US$28,000) and later regretted the engagement agreed to return the money.
However, her already shocked husband-to-be was then doubly taken aback when the woman asked him to deduct 30,000 yuan (US$4,200) as a “hugging fee”, triggering a public backlash against her.
The incident, reported by Henan TV, has attracted 23 million views on mainland social media.
It is a common practice in China that the groom’s family pays an amount of money as a betrothal gift, or bride price, to the bride’s family before the engagement, as gratitude for bringing up the bride.
According to the report, the man and the woman, who both live in Pingdingshan, Henan province, met last year through a matchmaker.
They got engaged in January and had planned to hold their wedding in November.
Like most couples in China, they took a set of pre-wedding photos.
The man’s family booked a hotel for their nuptials and informed all their relatives.
But weeks ago, the woman went back on her word and said she had withdrawn her decision to marry the man.
“The woman thought the man was too honest and had too little income,” their matchmaker, surnamed Wan, told the media.
“In terms of the bride price, she said she was willing to return it but would keep 30,000 yuan as a ‘hugging fee’.”
“I have introduced 1,000 couples in the past decade. Her family is the most picky one I have encountered. Her demand for a 30,000 yuan reduction is immoral,” said Wan.
He added that the man’s embrace of the woman was at the behest of the photographer during the wedding photo shoot.
“We do not have major disputes. I just do not want to marry him,” the woman was quoted as saying.
She said the 30,000 yuan also included some expenses she had incurred while they hung out together.
Following a period of negotiation, the two families agreed that the woman would return 170,500 yuan (US$24,000) to the man.
The bride price, which can range from 100,000 to 500,000 yuan (US$70,000), usually poses a huge financial burden on the man’s family.
In many regions, rural families have to pay a higher bride price than their counterparts in cities because there are fewer young women available, putting men at a disadvantage in the matchmaking market.
Cases of women regretting the engagement but refusing to return the bride price often make headlines in China.
Last year, a man took a woman and her father to court in central Hunan province after they refused to return the bride price of 230,000 yuan (US$32,000) to him.
Although the court ruled that the woman’s family should return the money within 15 days, they failed to do so and the man took his plight to the media in a bid to get the cash back. - South China Morning Post
