The China Daily offers an insightful article about Chinese marriages – Marriages need cash and love :

"Money is very important to a marriage," Hu said, and one's life quality should not go down steeply after getting married.

Love and money: Which is more important to a marriage?

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"Marriage is not simply about love," said Jiang Yue, a professor in Xiamen University's law school and an expert in marriage law. "It is a process of living. Can you talk about love all day but have no place to sleep?

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A survey of more than 100,000 single Chinese in 2009 found that for women, personal income ranked third among the top criteria in choosing a spouse, while physical appearance ranked third for men. Both men and women chose morality and personality as their top concerns, said Mu Yan, co-founder and vice-president of Baihe.com, one of the leading Chinese Internet dating and matchmaking sites.

nother survey by Baihe, conducted last year among 32,676 people ages 20 to 60, found that about 71 percent of women consider possession of a house a prerequisite for a man to get married, while only 48 percent of men have the same point of view. Nearly 86 percent of the people surveyed selected "having a stable income" as a precondition to tying the knot, followed by "having a house" (58 percent) and "having a certain amount of savings" (54 percent).

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As more women become financially independent, the way a couple spends money is also changing. When Hu Jingjing talked to her friends about family finance, she was surprised to hear that many couples spend their money separately rather than putting it together.

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"Who should be in charge of the joint bank account will become a problem," he said. "The wife certainly hopes that the account is in her hand so she will have a sense of security, but what if the husband also wants to take control of the money? Then they have to negotiate to reach an agreement."

Chinese marriage is changing with society… fast.

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