Strengthening ties to tie the knot

According to the current regulations, a couple desiring to marry must register at the registration office where one of them has his or her hukou or household registration.

That clause makes things inconvenient. In practice, many people's hukou are registered in their hometowns, even though they live and work in places far away. A couple may have to travel thousands of kilometers just to register for their marriage.

Moreover, if the couple needs official proof of their marriage status, it would mean another trip to their hometown to get it. Worse, the current system has a major loophole. There have been several known cases in which a person married someone in a province and married someone else in another. If it was a nationwide marriage registration system, such bigamous marriages could be prevented.

The current marriage registration system therefore needs to be reformed. That's why the Ministry of Civil Affairs recently said that it is considering changing the system so that couples can register a marriage anywhere in the country.

In order for that to happen, the most important step lies in breaking the boundaries among different provinces so that they share data about the marriage status of citizens.

That should be where the Ministry of Civil Affairs renders its efforts in the near future, so there is a road map for the rolling out of a nationwide system.