Marriages are increasing noticeably in China this year, a turn of events that has caught many observers off guard and buoyed officials who have been on the lookout for signs of demographic recovery. The impetus has been a relaxation of longstanding bureaucratic rules and a push to make weddings more appealing to young people. Couples can now register their marriage in places which, until recently, would have seemed unimaginable as a site of official paperwork: nightclubs, beach resorts, even music festivals where civil servants sit at temporary registration desks. State media have seized on the trend as evidence that young Chinese are warming again to marriage. But specialists caution that the surge may be more about convenience and novelty than a real change in attitudes towards family li

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