New-generation migrant workers have modern views on love and marriage

The new generation of rural migrant workers, who have come to the cities from the countryside, desire to be the "fashion icons" in the cities. As these rural migrant workers try to fit in in the city, they are already old enough to get married. Different from their parents, the new generation of migrant workers are generous and would like to spend money to seek romance and free love.

The parents of both male and female rural migrant workers are pressing their children to get married

A phrase that has become popular on the Internet: new generation rural migrant workers, matchmakers are asking you to return home for a blind date!

Dai Xiaohua, who is 22 years old this year, comes from Donglai Township, Chongren County, and now works in an electronics company in Dongguan. Dai told the reporter shyly that since the latter half of 2009, her parents have started to find her a boyfriend. During the New Year's Day holiday, Dai resigned to return home for a blind date. On February 1, Dai married a boy from a neighboring village.

Parents of rural migrant workers are also expecting their sons to bring their wives home as soon as possible. Li Ping, who comes from Youngxiu County, dropped out of school when he was 16 years old and went to Shenzhen. Li dropped out of school because he always had a headache when he read books, which is a common phenomenon among children in the countryside.

Li’s parents, however, do not care about that. His father thought that even if he forces Li to continue studying, the efforts will not bear fruit. His mother takes a longer view: "Bring a girlfriend home as soon as possible. I want to have a grandson." Fulfilling his parents' wish, after Li had worked in Shenzhen for several years, he married a girl from Hunan Province.

They are generous and would like to spend money to create romance

Compared with their fathers, who got married because of the good work of matchmakers, the new generation of rural migrant workers is able to communicate with one another more conveniently thanks to the increasingly advanced transportation and communication facilities. In the meantime, young people can communicate with one another more frequently and have broader choices when choosing who they want to marry. Additionally, there are more ways available to get married, such as through a marriage agency, as well as newspaper, magazine, TV, radio and Internet.

Unlike their parents who dared not date girls, the new generation rural migrant workers are generous and would like to spend money for romance. Wu Ziyun, who comes from Qiaomuwan Village, Raofeng Town, Poyang County, has a son that is one year old. His wife is from Henan Province. They met when they both worked in Xiamen. At that time, they always went shopping, gave flowers to each other during Christmas Day and New Year's Day, drank a lot in pubs and even went to Gulangyu Island to look at the stars.

They only care whether they like each other or not

No longer burdened by the simplistic and traditional thoughts popular in the countryside, such as that a wife should be frugal, hardworking and honest, the new generation rural migrant workers now pay more attention to whether their wives are considerate and beautiful and whether they are compatible with their potential wife.

There is a saying that a girl will be married to a man who lives far away from her countryside if she holds the chopsticks near the top. Hu Xiaozhen, who comes from Yongxin County and now works in Fujian's Shishi City, always held her chopsticks near the top when she was child. She could not believe it when that saying eventually became a reality: Hu knew a boy from Shanxi Province when she worked in Shishi, and they were married and she went to Shanxi in less than half a year.

The new generation of rural migrant workers now can select their other half in more places, and the barriers related to geography and kinship have been broken down. As long as the parties involved like each other, everything is possible. It is no longer unrealistic that a rural migrant worker from this new generation will marry a girl from the city, and it is common for a female migrant worker to marry a boy from the city. A boy from Jiangxi can marry a girl from Zhejiang, a girl from Hunan can marry a boy from Jiangsu, and a girl from Jiangsu can marry a boy from Henan. As long as they have a good marriage, they do not care whether or not they live far away from each other.