China's revised marriage registration regulations took effect on May 10. The amended regulations mandate marriage-registration departments must provide marriage-counseling services, and the regulations require marriage and family counselors, and relevant social organizations, to provide premarital education and family relationship counseling. The regulations also require organizations, such as women's federations, to assist and cooperate with marriage-registration departments in carrying out marital and family counseling services. Marriage and family counselors provide guidance on issues involving romantic relationships and family life. While drawing on their expertise, they help people live happy family lives and, in turn, contribute to social harmony.
Lighting the Way
Zhang Suxia, founder and executive president of Luoyang (a city in Central China's Henan Province) Association of Marriage and Family Counselors, says marriage and family counseling is a job with the aim of guiding people in the pursuit of love.
She established the association in 2015. Between 2018 and 2020, her team worked with staff from the civil affairs bureau of Xigong District, in Luoyang, to conduct marriage and family related research, and to provide various public-welfare services.
In 2020, Zhang's association established the marriage and family counseling station in the marriage-registration office of Xigong District. Since then, Zhang and her team have provided diverse services — including premarital and pre-divorce guidance, family relationship guidance and marriage-crisis intervention — at the station.
Zhang's team is composed of lawyers, social workers, psychologists and volunteers, all of whom are Party (Communist Party of China) members. The team has provided objective and professional advice to visitors, especially newlyweds and individuals coping with family crises. To date, the team has conducted 535 consultations, and it has conducted 457 pre-divorce guidance sessions.
"Marriage life is like a song, which has high and low notes, and even pauses. I have seen people's confusion as they were about to marry, and I have witnessed people's happiness and sadness in marriage," says Zhang. "The harmony of society depends on the harmony of families. Marriage and family counselors are like lights, which lighten the way ahead for each family."
May 20 is a date cherished by Chinese couples. Why? Simply put, "520" sounds like "I love you" in Mandarin. Many couples choose to exchange their wedding vows on May 20. Li Bailing, a marriage counselor in a downtown marriage-registration hall in Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, has witnessed such moments.
After the couples exchange their vows, Li and her colleagues provide counseling services to them. "The counseling aims to help young couples learn that marriage requires practical wisdom," Li says. Through workshops on making family plans, newlyweds are taught to communicate openly, and to make plans, together, for their future, Li adds. That, she says, helps couples turn their legal unions into a warm, thoughtful beginning for their married lives.
Chongqing Municipal Civil Affairs Bureau has launched innovative initiatives, such as a marriage-counseling hotline and several measures designed to help couples build stronger relationships.
Combined, the initiatives, provided by a team of 10,000-plus counselors, social workers and psychologists, have benefited more than one million residents.
To support newlyweds in building prosperous, and lasting, marriages, Chongqing Municipal People's Government established a comprehensive, and professional, marriage and family service system.
Civil affairs departments in Chongqing have organized matchmaking activities for young people, and the departments have offered classes, in romantic relationships, at universities. Also, the departments have provided customized, premarital guidance to couples, based on the couples' characteristics, family values and backgrounds.
The departments have also provided couples with training in practical skills, such as forming good habits, making family financing plans, and adapting to their roles within the family. For couples who wanted a divorce, counselors have focused on helping them deal with their family problems in peaceful, appropriate ways.
In addition, the departments have highlighted fine family traditions through the selection and exhibition of family letters, and through public lectures promoting good family traditions. They have accelerated reforms of marriage customs, in part by advocating simple, economical wedding practices. Some collective wedding ceremonies, combining ethnic features, have been organized.
"The collective wedding was both solemn and simple, and it avoided extravagance. We really appreciated this fresh, and modest, approach," said one couple, who participated in a collective wedding ceremony in 2024.
Organizations in Action
To promote marriage and family counseling services, women's federations, at all levels, and civil affairs departments have encouraged marriage-registration offices to establish marriage-counseling service centers.
Xinwu (a district in Wuxi, a city in East China's Jiangsu Province) Women's Federation launched an initiative in June 2023. Under the initiative, guidance is provided to newlyweds over a three-year term. Each couple receives a guidebook and is assigned a tutor, who helps them solve problems in their marriage. The guidebook contains the laws on marriage and family, and advice on how to deal with difficulties, make commitments and express love.
The couples also receive access to online, marriage-related courses, and relevant public salons (once a week) and lectures (once a month). Couples can also consult professionals in a WeChat group.
Statistics indicate the first three years of marriage are key for a couple to establish their common lifestyle. Professional support can help couples succeed in marriage with effective communication- and problem-solving mechanisms.
Shandong Women's Federation and the Department of Civil Affairs of Shandong Province, in East China, launched a marriage and family counseling service initiative in 2018.
Marriage-counseling centers have since been established in 141 county-level, marriage-registration centers. Combined, 11,000 village-/community-level, marriage-counseling stations have been established. The centers and stations have served more than 960,000 couples.
Wan Xiuhui, head of Jiaozhou (a city in Shandong Province) Marriage and Family Counseling Center, developed a six-step method of counseling based on her experiences as a counselor. The steps include listening to couples' problems, classifying the problems, giving guidance, compiling files and monitoring the couples' situations after the counseling. Using the method, Wan and her colleagues have provided precise guidance and mediation services.
Women's federations and marriage-counseling centers and stations in Shandong have continuously made innovative efforts to improve their counseling services. Qingdao Women's Federation has produced short videos that guide families in properly solving their disputes.
Wendeng (a district in Weihai) Women's Federation has established four teams of volunteer marriage counselors. The teams are composed of psychologists, lawyers and retired cadres. The volunteers often exchange experiences, and they receive regular training, in psychology, law and family education, from professionals in various fields.
Photos from Interviewees, VCG and Tuchong
(Women of China English Monthly August 2025)
Executive Editor: Wang Shasha
