CHINA: Forced Marriage, Man Hides For Year Because Family Forces Him to Marry

One man from Xianyang was so fed up with his family forcing him to marry that he ran off and hid in the ruins of a demolished building for a year.

In the morning of April 29, police in Yan’an, Shaanxi province, received a call from worried locals who discovered a man living in the ruins of a demolished building. After inspection, the man was found to be a 30-year-old bachelor from Xianyang, a city some 300 kilometers away from Yan’an.

Zhang allegedly ran away from his family after they forced him to marry. He had been in hiding for over a year,living in primitive conditions.

The topic became trending on Chinese social media on May 1st. Many netizens sympathize with the man, and say that people should be able to choose their own life. “This could’ve been me,” one person said. One netizen says: “Forcing people into marriage should be prohibited by law.”

There are also some Weibo users who are more critical about the situation: “Even if he ran away from family, he could’ve still got a job,” one netizen comments. Another person says: “Who would marry a guy like this anyway?”

Local police contacted the man’s family, who has since been reunited with his family.

The pressure to marry has been a recurringly hot topic on Chinese social media. The SK-II campaign that encouraged women to choose their own destiny recently became trending.

In 2014, one mother bought a front-page advertisement in a Melbourne newspaper to reach her son, who was staying in Australia after studying there, to avoid his family pressuring him into marriage.

The ad said: “Peng, I have called you several times but you didn’t pick up. Maybe this is the only way for you to get my message. Mum and Dad will not pressure you to get married ever again. Please come back home for the new year! Love, Mum.”