Army Men’s Marriage
By Luo Erwen
“Editor: ‘On festive occasions more than ever one thinks of their dearest ones far away’. But nowadays in China, the ‘dearest ones’ sometimes refers to the ones you meet in blind dates. The first day of the lunar year 2010 happens to be St. Valentine’s Day. Before the new year arrives, South Weekend takes another glance at the Chinese Liberation Army. However, this time the focus is armymen’s marriage instead of posture or reformation. During this time of family reunion, let’s take a look at the ‘marriage codes’ behind their indomitable looks.”
Marriage could be very ‘Liberation Army-y’
“There is a well-accepted idea in the Army that female teachers and military officers make a perfect match, possibly because in military families, spouses are usually separated at the early stage and teachers can take advantage of their winter and summer vacations to visit the husband.”
As the Tiger year is approaching, one night, a Captain in the Liberation Army Li Yuxuan got back to the dorm at 10:00 p.m. after working overtime. He received a phone call from his parents right after he’d washed up. After a few words, there came the ‘usual question’. His father said: ‘We’ve been waited too long for you to get married.’
30-year-old Li Yuxuan has had a relationship when he was in a military university. However, after he was assigned to the grass-root unit, he was promoted to platoon commander, then company commander; then he was relocated to military institution as a colonel of military affairs and has been always busy since then. Several blind dates ended up in vain. As the only child in the family, his parents are worried about his marriage.
Above-the-average-age-of-marriage Li Yuxuan’s being single is not a special case in the Army. Besides frequent relocation from work, and similar reasons as civil citizens staying unhitched, the specific and distinctive nature of the Army also adds up to the difficulty for them to find a life partner.
First of all, armymen have limited time and circle to look for romance. The army camp is majorly composed of males, and often function in the form of group activities, as a result, they have few opportunities to have contact with women. Except for the fact that military officers and a very few number of sergeants are allowed to look for partners where the troops are based, the majority of the army can only maintain a relationship in the place of their origin. Strict regulations in the army (for example, they should always be ready to get back whenever visiting family or on vacation) is compressing their time for relationships to the fullest extent. According to a report from ‘Liberation Army Daily’ last year, no insurances of vacation has cause their difficulty in looking for a partner in marriage.
Moreover, two sides in the marriage or relationship stay separated for long times. They depend on letters and phone calls to maintain communication; after getting married, they are mostly faced with having to stay separated right away. The separation usually lasts for three to five years, during which they can only have one or two short reunions every year. Not after the military officers are promoted to secondary battalion grade, their spouses cannot accompany them in the Army. Even after the spouses can accompany then in the Army, they are still faced with possible separation due to relocation or task execution.
The most direct consequence is that the officer’s wife has to shoulder more family responsibilities, which is illustrated from the term we call them—family dependents (Jia Shu). As a result, those wives who deal with all the problems on their own like Han Suyun have become the typical examples of supporting military undertaking and have gained great publicity.
These facts may have made it prohibitive for some females to start a relationship with army men. However, favorable public image, steady income and relatively high political and social status have got them bonus marks. Surveys show that those military officers who stay stably in a certain unit without relocation tend to get married two to four years after graduation.
Besides free love, blind dates have become the major path for army men’s marriage. Comrades-in-arms, superior officers and their family members are likely to become their match-makers. With the concern of the match-makers, the Spring Festival holiday has become a great opportunity for single ‘elder’ army men to rush to the ‘battle of love’.
Another path is Military-Civilian gathering. It is usually organized jointly by military sections together with mass organizations like local Women’s Association and or so. It’s has made a number of matches.
However, for those who are stationed on plateau, on the mountains or sea islands and other places with extreme conditions, their love patterns are hard to generalize. What we can be sure is that their love story is destined to suffer from more sorrows and bitterness, which is reflected in the skit “Military Spouses to the Island” on the Spring Festival Gala.
Generally speaking, the spouses of military officers are well-cultivated, especially in big and medium cities, spouses of male officers are majorly made up with white collars, besides female military officers. There is a well-accepted idea in the Army that female teachers and military officers make a perfect match, possibly because in military families, spouses are usually separated at the early stage and teachers can take advantage of their winter and summer vacations to visit the husband.
Female officers are a rare species in the army, so they are not worried about getting married. Their socializing circle tends to be limited in the army as well; but there are also some female officers who have made it clear that they don’t want to find a partner in the military.
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http://www.infzm.com/content/41452
The rest three parts are worse and too long, so I didn't finish the whole article.
For myself, men in uniforms is always a temptation, haa~
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