FEATURE: Beijing cracks down on lavish weddings as costs soar

Asian Economic News, May 13, 2002

BEIJING, May 3 Kyodo

Despite a government ban and repeated warnings, the holding of weddings, funerals and birthday celebrations ''in a sumptuous, extravagant and luxurious manner'' remains widespread among Chinese Communist Party cadres and government officials.

So said the official Legal Daily recently, in reporting that the municipal government in Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, northeastern China, had ''shown a red light against this unhealthy trend in order to tighten party discipline.''

Celebrations and funeral wakes are a useful way for Chinese to flaunt their wealth or high position to impress friends and neighbors. But it can also be a disguised means of bribery.

If one seeks favors from top officials, they should be invited to the party, wined and dined in sumptuous style, and plied with expensive gifts when they leave.

Alternatively, if a top official is hosting the event, the invitees will certainly want to please him to grease the connection for possible future favors. In rural areas in particular, all the guests to a wedding feast bring a monetary gift, which can be a handy cover for a possible bribe.

Jiang Ruifeng, deputy party secretary of Shijiazhuang municipality and secretary of the local party's disciplinary commission, recently convened a conference to discuss sanctions to be taken against offending cadres.

''Embezzlement and bribery are considered corruption, so is abusing weddings, funerals and celebrations for personal gain.

''Such conduct will only serve to separate the party from the masses. This is not a matter of social practice, but a matter that influences the party's ruling position,'' he declared.

Jiang cited the example of the deputy director of a small town government, Hu Zhijun, 47, who had held a wedding ceremony for his son lasting more than 10 days last October.

Hundreds of people turned up to the event, and more than 10 expensive government cars were used to form a large parade. A local song and dance ensemble and music band performed repeatedly, and members of the local militia were ordered to take turns standing guard.

The height of the celebrations was a lavish dinner staged at a leading hotel for 448 guests sitting at 47 tables. They handed over 37,000 yuan (about $4,470) in monetary gifts, including 27,630 yuan from non-family guests.

This, said Jiang, had caused much public resentment, leading to someone writing him a highly critical letter describing what had happened. After a lengthy investigation, involving the questioning of more than 100 people, Hu was dismissed from his post recently.

In 1995, Shijiazhuang municipality launched a system whereby leading cadres were required to report significant personal issues involving themselves or their families.

But, according to the Legal Daily, the system had not been effective, and up to 2001 only 53 leading cadres had reported plans for wedding ceremonies, funerals and birthday celebrations involving themselves or relatives.

The Communist Party, therefore, took the opportunity provided by the Hu Zhijun scandal to circulate a notice requiring all members to ''raise their attainment of party aims to a higher level.''

They should understand that holding extravagant, sumptuous and luxurious wedding ceremonies, funerals and birthday celebrations was a sign of ''corruption and degeneration,'' improper organization, lack of education and poor management, the notice declared.

One might, however, have some sympathy for Hu, who was in part experiencing a fact of life in China today -- the soaring cost of weddings.

The Social Survey Institute of China recently conducted a telephone survey regarding wedding expenses among urban households in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chongqing, to which 600 families responded.

Despite careful planning, most families ended up spending more than they bargained for, and often faced long-term debt. But that does not deter people from wishing to make a public splash.

The exact amount Hu spent on his son's wedding party was not revealed, but $5,000 would certainly be a conservative estimate.

In the Social Survey Institute's survey, 43.5% of the families, said they spent more than 10,000 yuan on the wedding banquet, and it is likely that their guest list would have been nowhere near as long as that of the Hu family.

While salaries have gone up in recent years from the highly depressed levels prevailing up to the early 1990s, 10,000 yuan is still a substantial amount for an ordinary urban family to splash out on a meal, no matter how special.

To this, however, has to be added various other expenses. In regard to wedding attire, 46.4% of the surveyed families said their spending was between 3,000 yuan and 5,000 yuan, while another 12.8% spent more than the latter figure.

About 30.1% of the families said their spending on jewelry was between 5,000 yuan and 10,000 yuan, while another 16.7% spent more than that.

Many families now hire professional wedding planners to make sure the event goes without a hitch, and their services are not cheap.