In the beginning, at least, marriage is marked by broad smiles and kisses. This young couple was married on Feb 14 in Anhui province. [Photo/China Daily]

Bemoaning the loss

The men aren't always in control. Sometimes they need evidence, too.

Tang Jian'an, a Shanghai divorce lawyer at M&A Law Firm, has seen a few cases in which the wife hid the marital assets. "In Shanghai, women are money-savvy and take control of home finances," he said.

And an increasing number of men are complaining about their financial losses in divorce. Lawyer Song mentioned one client, a Beijing man who divorced his wife from northeastern China. As they stepped out of the courtroom, he told Song that he would never again marry a penniless woman.

The man, a senior manager in a media company, believed the woman had married him for his house. He earned roughly 20,000 yuan ($3,050) a month and said he worked very hard to obtain the property. He lost more than 1 million yuan in the divorce.

Gender equity

Sixty years after China's first Marriage Law, which for the first time raised the issue of gender equality, the social status of women has improved dramatically.

Women are confident, independent and in some aspects doing better than men, law professionals said. "Overprotection can only lead to gender inequality," said Jia Mingjun with Whole Guard Law Firm based in Shanghai.

"Men make no less contribution to a family than women. While women look after children and seniors at home, men are out drinking with business partners for the family. It is not easy, either."

Some women have taken the initiative to protect themselves before marriage.

"Many women in Shanghai are asking their boyfriends to add their names to property before they get married," Tang said. Women are more financially independent, he said, and in some cases are richer than their husbands.

Jiang Yue argues that sex discrimination still exists and divorced women have fewer opportunities to remarry than men. "That loss should be taken into consideration too," she said. "As we advocate the right to divorce, we should also protect the right not to divorce."

Jiang said some of her female clients ended up living a miserable life after their husbands divorced them at age 50 or 60. She suggested that in extreme cases, when a wife has sacrificed her whole life for the man, the divorce should be rejected.

"They have dedicated most of their lives to the family. When it is time to share the fruit of the husband's success, they are divorced," Jiang said. "Without the wife's support, the husband could not have achieved the success. And the older the man is the better his career will be."

Jiang said that the division of marital assets also should include a husband's projected income after divorce. That would apply, for example, when the wife supported the family while the husband attended college overseas.

Some women say they don't see the need for special protection: They take equal responsibilities including household work, and they are capable of protecting themselves.

"Nothing is reliable, not your life, not your marriage," said An Jian, a 30-year-old who had a prenuptial agreement with her boyfriend before they were married in 2007. "It is better to make it clear in case anything happens in the future."

The agreement states clearly the percentage the two contributed respectively to buy the 2 million-yuan apartment where they live now. An paid for 70 percent of it.

New work on the sidelines Protecting individuals' assets is not just a matter for lawmakers, lawyers and the asset owners. Business is up in a couple of lines of work. Generally, a divorcing couple must split their marital assets equally unless one can prove the other guilty of certain transgressions. Lawyers said some parties to a divorce hire private investigators to determine whether their partners are hiding assets so they can keep more than half. Prenuptial agreements make it clear whose assets are whose before marriage and, sometimes, the fact that they want to share what they bring to the marriage. Notary offices, which legalize such civil agreements, are busier. Zhou Zhiyang, director of Beijing's Changan Notary Office, said the number of prenuptial agreements her office legalizes every year has soared from a few in a year to about 200. "It is mainly about houses because the property is becoming increasingly valuable."

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