cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/50924425

The country’s online regulator aims to curb social media fuelling ‘marriage phobia’ and ‘fertility anxiety’ over the lunar new year.

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No online jokes about useless husbands, bossy mothers-in-law, marriage being a trap or the joys of singledom will be allowed, all in the name of encouraging people to tie the knot.

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A running joke of the season, when millions of Chinese people head from the cities to their childhood homes and villages, is that it is when the first duty of filial piety comes into effect: the requirement to tell parents and grandparents why you do not have a boyfriend or a girlfriend; if you have one, why you are not yet married; or, if you are married, why you do not have a child.

Enforcement of that duty is being taken over by the Cyberspace Administration of China, the chief censorship body for the internet and social media, which has issued its instructions for the holiday season, which starts on Tuesday.

“Regulators will crack down on content that promotes ‘anti-marriage’ or ‘anti-childbirth’ narratives, fuels gender antagonism or exaggerates so-called ‘marriage phobia’ and ‘fertility anxiety’,” according to a stern article in the People’s Daily, the mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party.

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This is not just about online joshing. It covers influencers and particularly artificial intelligence-generated content, and seems acutely focused on what happens in families everywhere when they are forced to spend time together.

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Last year the number of babies born [in China] was the lowest since records began in 1949 and the rate of decline is accelerating. Cities and provinces have attempted a variety of “interventions”, ranging from childcare subsidies to the more direct practice of phoning young women and asking them why they are not pregnant — an extreme form of grandmother behaviour, as some have noted.

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