Wedded to work: China’s first marriage-related degree to open for enrolment, with 70 slots up for grabs

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Speaking to the state broadcaster on Monday (Jul 29), the university’s vice president Zhao Hongguang said graduates can pursue careers in industry associations, marriage agencies, or family and marriage counselling organisations, to name some.

According to Ms Yu, there is currently a lack of highly trained professionals in the wedding and matchmaking industries in China. There has also been increasing demand for people who can provide “sophisticated wedding planning services and design and develop matchmaking services”.

The unveiling of a marriage-related degree comes as the country of 1.4 billion people keeps up a concerted push to encourage marriages and childbirth in turn, especially as the implications of a declining population weigh heavy.

The number of marriages in China has been going down for close to a decade, aside from a post-pandemic rebound in 2023. While the number of newlyweds rose to 7.68 million last year, a 12.3 per cent on-year jump, it’s still far below the peak of 13.47 million couples in 2013.

Marriage rates are closely tied to birth rates. But more women in the country are choosing to stay single, amid record youth unemployment and an economic downturn. 

According to official data, China’s single population aged over 15 hit a record 239 million in 2021. That same year, a Communist Youth League survey of about 2,900 unmarried urban young people also found that 44 per cent of women do not plan to marry.

In March, Chinese Premier Li Qiang pledged that the government would work towards “a birth-friendly society and promote long-term, balanced population development”, as well as reducing the cost of childbirth, parenting and education.

He said the country would improve policies to boost birth rates by “refining parental leave policies, improving the mechanism for sharing the related labour costs of employers and increasing the supply of childcare services”. 

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Grilled eel leaves one dead, 140 sick in Japan

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TOKYO: Grilled eel, or unagi, a popular summer delicacy in Japan, is behind a department store food poisoning incident that has left more than 140 people sick and one dead, the store’s president said.

Shinji Kaneko of Keikyu Department Store in Yokohama – about an hour from Tokyo – apologised after the customers, who last week bought lunch boxes containing eel, suffered vomiting and diarrhoea.

One of the customers – reportedly a woman in her 90s – died, Shinji Kaneko told reporters on Monday (Jul 29), bowing deeply and offering “our most sincere condolences”.

The products included eel cooked in the traditional “kabayaki” style: Skewered, grilled and basted in a sweet, sticky mixture of soy sauce and mirin rice wine.

Consumed worldwide, eel is particularly popular in Asia, and remains found in Japanese tombs show it has been eaten on the archipelago for thousands of years.

A probe by health officials detected a type of bacteria called staphylococcus aureus in the products, Keikyu Department Store said.

“We take what happened very seriously and feel deeply sorry about it. We will fully cooperate with investigations by public health authorities,” Kaneko said.

Tokyo-based restaurant Isesada, which operates a stand inside the Keikyu department store, was responsible for cooking and directly selling the eel products.

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Thousands hit by flooding in North Korea

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Summer floods in North Korea often cause serious damage to farmlands due to poor drainage, deforestation and dilapidated infrastructure. Typhoons and torrential rains in 2020 were among the difficulties Kim previously said had created “multiple crises” at home, along with draconian pandemic-related restrictions and UN sanctions over his nuclear weaponsContinue Reading

Typhoon Gaemi displaces nearly 300,000 in eastern China

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” Big Floods” Officials in China were alerted that Typhoon Gaemi was bringing with it heavy storms that might cause flooding. They have relocated more than 290, 000 people in Fujian and locked down public transportation, offices, schools and businesses in some places. In the neighboring Zhejiang province, film airedContinue Reading

From ‘life coaches’ to ‘spiritual healing gurus’: Fake experts being targeted on China’s version of TikTok

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SINGAPORE: China’s leading short video app Douyin is cracking down on the accounts of false authorities and” self-proclaimed experts”, amid a wider cyber recovery being undertaken by the state.

The domestic sister app of TikTok announced the clampdown on Monday ( Jul 22 ) in a WeChat statement. It claimed it recently found a number of accounts with “fake personas.” &nbsp,

Claiming to become professionals from popular companies, professionals or” self-proclaimed masters”, these characters gain the trust of Douyin people before directing them to third-party systems to make a profit. &nbsp,

” Such behaviour violates ( Douyin’s ) platform rules and may cause other users to suffer financial and emotional losses”, the platform warned. Douyin had about 755 million monthly active users as of February 2024, according to Statista.

On Monday, Douyin stated that it has always been committed to keeping a” clean, healthy, and trusted environment.” It urged the upsetting accounts to promptly” right” or remove false or misleading information, or give believable proof of their claims.

If never, they face possible accounts bans, a update of their names or personal information, as well as movies being removed.

Insulting accounts may also have their crowdfunding rights cancelled, removed from search advertisements, or banned from gaining new fans. &nbsp,

“MASTERS OF LOST Like Healing”

Douyin gave instances of conduct by these “fake specialist” records that went against its standards.

For example, people who claim to be successful but ca n’t or do not provide credible evidence, such as self-declared senior executives who claim to be the “director of a large factory” or professionals with” 20 years of experience in companies.”

Also in the crosshairs- accounts with” unverifiable performances”. For example, they would claim to have” successfully helped more than 300 companies double their sales”, helped” 1 million mothers get rich while working part-time”, or” brought 5, 000 couples together”, Douyin stated.

Accounts run by” self-proclaimed masters” who are well-known in society may also see themselves banned.

These are people who claim to be the” love and marriage experts””, life coaches””, spiritual healing gurus” as well as” masters of lost love recovery”, Douyin pointed out.

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