Diamonds aren’t just for marriage for China’s singletons
Usually Chinese girls receive their very first diamond when their boyfriends propose together with red roses or put the blingbling ring on their fingers at their dream wedding. Tiffany or Cartier is ideal. Domestic jewelry brands, like Chow Tai Fook or Lao Feng Xiang are not bad. Since “Diamonds are forever,” everyone wants their love to be as eternal as a hard and enduring diamond signifies.
I’ve never been a fan of diamonds, but in summer my boyfriend and I had to visit nearly all the jewelry shops across Beijing under the scorching sun to look for a presentable and affordable diamond ring that would augur well for our upcoming wedding. After all, how can a man prove his deep love for a woman if he doesn’t even want to buy expensive jewelry like a diamond for her? In other words, isn’t it miserable to get married without even a diamond ring?
But to my surprise, there weren’t so many diamond rings on most jewelry counters. There were more other trinkets embedded with the ostentatious stones, which obviously didn’t target women like me who were to get married. To be honest, I’m far fonder of these necklaces and earrings than the diamond ring that we finally bought.
Yep, I get that things are changing. Nowadays, diamonds are not really linked with the eternity of marriage for Chinese women aged from 18 to 34, who are financially independent and well-educated, according to a recent Bloomberg report. These potential diamond consumers, the number of whom can be as much as 220 million, don’t need to sit and wait for a man to gift them a diamond sparkler.
Given the high divorce rate in China, which almost tripled in the past decade, the eternity of diamonds that commercials love to advertise has gradually lost its magic among young Chinese women. And even marriage itself is losing its charm since an increasing number of Chinese are living alone, now 14.6 percent of the country’s population. For these young women, diamond baubles are nothing more than fashionable jewelry they can buy to match their outfits whenever they want, and not just for marriage.
Interestingly, diamond sellers are always quick to sniff the demographic shift. They created a connection between diamonds and marriage and embedded it in the mentality of Chinese. Now they’ve altered their focus. Jewelry brands such as Pandora have kicked the couple out of their ads and gone all out to appeal to young women.
Why not applaud for the new trend of detachment? Marriage is so complicated a thing that its endurance can never be signified and guaranteed by anything, especially a sparkling stone.
A survey by J. Walter Thompson, an international advertising agency, last year showed that more than two in five Chinese female respondents said financial independence was more important than marriage, according to Bloomberg. I don’t adore being a singleton, but I always advocate women’s independence, physically and mentally.
Nowadays, women don’t need to rely on marrying a man for financial support, as they traditionally did. Instead they are well-educated and independent enough to have a job and support themselves. They are financially able to buy and do whatever they want to please themselves. They have a bigger than ever world to explore. Why would they pin everything on marriage if it were not for love?
So let diamonds just be diamonds to embellish a woman and make her happy and confident. Let marriage just be a life that a woman can’t wait to experience with someone she loves at that moment.