TheConcepts Regarding Mariage and Birth and Family of the Change for Chinese

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Since the implementation of the policy of family planning in China，profound changes have been taking place in people’s concepts of marriage，birth and family along with the reform and opening to the outside world as well as socio-economic development；the traditional ideas of“early marriage and early births，”“more children，greater happiness，”and“looking up on men and down on women”are being discarded by more and more people at the child-bearing ages.Late marriage and late births，fewer and healthier births，viewing male and female children as the same，establishing happy，perfect and harmonious small families and seeking a modern，scientific and civilized way of life have become an irresistible trend of the times.

The rate of early marriage for women has come down and their average age at first marriage has gone up.In 1992，the proportion of women entering first marriage before the age of 20 dropped to 12.9 percent of the total number of first marriage women.In 1970，women’s average age at first marriage was 20.2 years，while in 1993 it was 22.67 years，Up 2.47 years.The family size has become gradually smaller and nucleus family is becoming the major form of modern Chinese families.According to China’s fourth national census，the average size of families in 1990 was 3.96 persons，0.88 person less than the 4.84 persons in 1971.

The major reason for the reduction of family size is a reduction in the number of births.Compared with 1970，of the babies born in 1993 the first-birth rate and second-birth rate increased from 20.7 percent and 17.1 percent to 61.3 percent and 27.5 percent respectively，and the multiple-birth rate dropped from 62.2percent to 11.2 percent.By 1994，a total of 46.76 million couples had volunteered to give birth to only one child throughout the country，accounting for 20.3 percent of the total married women at child-bearing age.At thecurrent level of economic development and living standards in China，the reduction of family size and fewer children to support have obviously re-duced the economic burden and the burden of family chores on the families and improved their quality of life.