婚姻改革使人们能够跟随自己的心 Marriage reform empowers people to follow heart

On a summer weekday in 2004, a young Chinese man and a young American woman walked up to a stage draped in burgundy velvet curtains, before the red national flag and the red-and-gold national seal of China at an office in Shanghai.

2004年夏天的一个工作日，上海民政局办事处，一位年轻的中国男子和一位年轻的美国女子走上挂着勃艮第天鹅绒帘幕的台上，在鲜红的国旗和红色金色相间的国徽下宣誓。

They stood to the side as a government representative -- a 30-something woman with a floppy ponytail -- asked them to remain faithful and respectful to one another, to care for their parents, to support each other, and to maintain harmony in the family.

他们身旁，一名30多岁扎着马尾辫的女子作为政府代表要求他们彼此忠诚，相互尊重，支持对方，照顾好双方的父母，保持家庭和睦。

Then they signed two small red books on the podium, and held those books up beside their smiling faces, as photographers snapped away and the young government representative beamed. By the powers granted her by the People's Republic of China, the couple became legally married.

然后他们在台上的两个红色的小本上签字，然后拿着结婚证，满面春风地等着摄影师拍照，那位年轻的政府代表在一旁充满笑意。根据中华人民共和国赋予她的权力，这对夫妇成为法定夫妻。

That was the day my husband Jun and I registered our marriage, a moment we had envisioned ever since January of that same year, when he had proposed to me over the phone.

那天是我和丈夫骏登记结婚的日子，从那年一月份他通过电话向我求婚的时候我们就开始想象这一刻了。

But none of this -- the proposal, and the subsequent marriage registration -- would have happened in 2004 without a very significant change that took place in China on Oct 1, 2003.

如果没有2003年10月1日中国发生的重大改革的话，所有这些——求婚以及随后的婚姻登记——都不会在2004年发生。

On that date, a reform of China’s Marriage Law took effect, abolishing that previous requirement: approval by your employer or work unit to register your marriage.

这一天，中国“婚姻法”的一项改革开始生效，废除了以前的要求：经雇主或工作单位批准办理婚姻登记。

In Shanghai, this change applied to students too, like Jun, who was in a graduate program at the time.

在上海，这一变化也适用于学生，比如当时正在攻读研究生课程的俊。

The prior regulation had barred us from even considering marriage for a simple reason -- universities would not permit it.

之前的规定禁止我们考虑结婚，原因很简单，大学不允许结婚。

Thanks to this reform of the Marriage Law, we could move forward to register our marriage without concern over any impact on Jun’s graduate studies. The only approval that mattered in the process was our own.

由于“婚姻法”的这一改革，我们可以登记婚姻，而不必担心对俊的研究生学业有任何影响。在这个过程中唯一重要的是我们自己的意愿。

We weren’t the only ones that year who took advantage of the change. According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, 2004 stood out as a boom year for marriage registrations across the country, with 8.67 million couples tying the knot, a rise of nearly 7 percent over 2003.

那一年，我们并不是唯一得益于这一变化的一对爱人。根据国家统计局的数据，2004年是全国结婚登记人数最多的一年，有867万对夫妇结婚，比2003年增加了近7%。

At the time, it represented the largest year-on-year increase in marriage registrations in China since 1986.

这是自1986年以来中国结婚登记人数同比增长最快的一年。

Residing in Shanghai proved fortuitous for us, as not every area embraced student marriages with the 2003 reform.

能在上海结婚很幸运，因为并不是每个地区都实行了2003年的改革。

But canceling the need for approval in marriage registrations had generated such a strong ripple effect, which apparently trickled down even to students, despite their university’s stance on the matter.

但是取消婚姻登记审批的要求产生了非常强烈的涟漪效应，不管他们的大学对此事持什么立场，这件事已经对学生造成了影响。

“After China simplified procedures for marriage applications in October 2003, schools had less ability to keep track of their students' marital status,” China Daily reported in its story Huzhou Student Marries After Rule Change, a headline referencing the country’s ultimate decision in 2005 to lift the 50-year ban on student marriages for all universities.

“2003年10月中国简化了婚姻申请程序后，学校已无力跟踪记录学生婚姻状况。”《中国日报》报道了规则变化后湖州学生结婚的新闻，该新闻提到了2005年中国取消了50年以来禁止所有大学生结婚的禁令。

The 2003 marriage reform, and subsequent 2005 reform to permit student marriages, have had an incredible impact in China, empowering individuals to follow their hearts in one of the most important life decisions a person can make.

2003年的婚姻改革，以及随后的2005年允许学生结婚的改革，给中国带来的影响令人难以置信，它赋予了个人权力，让他们在人生最重要的决定中跟随自己的心。

This kind of freedom, a critical aspect of China’s reform and opening-up, has helped transform the country into a more humane place to live.

这种自由是中国改革开放的一个关键方面，帮助中国成为一个更加人道的国家。

It means China can better fulfill its promise to serve the people, including a young graduate student in Shanghai who longed to marry his American sweetheart in 2004.

这意味着中国可以更好地履行其为人民服务的承诺，包括一名在上海的年轻研究生，他渴望在2004年能与他的美国女友结婚。