Big Data Report：CAI LI in China before Marriage

文/ 郭雨绵 李丹

观韬中茂（上海）家事团队

Yesterday we explored the social and cultural background of Cai Li as well as people’s attitudes toward it. （Cai Li：Bride Price with Chinese Characteristics）

However, it’s clear that the wedding--the celebration of the union after the giving of Cai Li, does not bring about the legal “married” status in marriage law.

If one side (either the groom’s or the bride’s) refuses to go to the marriage registrar to legalize their marriage and asks for a break up, the groom needs to go to the court to ask his Cai Li back. Today we are going to learn about those Cai Li cases through big data.

Notice: in this article we only talk about Cai Li cases which involves money and jewelry, because cases involving housing are much more complicated in practice.

Top5 Areas Which Have The Largest Number of  Cai Li Cases

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• He Nan Province：1525

• An Hui Province：780

• Gan Su Province：459

• Shan Dong Province：437

• Jiang Su Province：381

Compared to the top 3 most developed area in China：

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• Beijing：10

• Shanghai：13

• Guangdong：10

As the top five provinces have the top largest number of population among other provinces, the order of which may vary, it is not surprising that they have comparatively more Cai Li cases than other provinces and municipal cities especially when there exist large area of countryside where Cai Li is a must.

Who’s Defendant in Cai Li Cases？

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• The bride only：32%

• The bride and her parents ：68%

In many cases, Cai Li was given directly to the bride’s parents and the bride may not get even a penny as Cai Li in essense is the ompensation to the parents for their raising up the bride. 

This is the reason why the groom sues not only the daughter but also the parents. The court will grant a decree of “joint liability”where the both the bride and her parents have full responsibility to return the Cai Li.

How about the value of Cai Li（CNY）？

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• Less than 50k：12%

• Between 50k and 100k ：44%

• Between 100k and 150k ：26%

• Between 150k and 200k：12%

• No less than 200k：6%

Given that there are no housing involved in Cai Li cases, the value of Cai Li seldom goes up to 200k. 

A sum of 100k Cai Li equals to the average yearly salary of OL in Pudong, Shanghai, but it might be a big deal for a rural family in backward provinces—costing the parents’ almost entire life to save up.

The proportion of Cai Li the courts decide that the bride’s side should return？

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• Less than 25%：6%
  

• Between 25% and 50%：10%

• Between 50% and 70%：36%

• Between 70% and 90%：30%

• No less than 90%：18%

We can see from the above that in more than 80% of the cases the bride’s sides are asked to return at least 50% of the Cai Li.

In the following part，we’re going to discuss the factors which leads to the different proportion in those judgments.

（1） duration of cohabitation

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• 0 month：90%(average)

• 1-2 months: 70%(average)

• 2-6 months: 60%(average)

• >=6 months: 55%(average)

In most cases，the parties have cohabitated for a period of time, lasting from several weeks to several years. The longer the duration, the lower proportion the bride’s side should return the Cai Li. 

The reason lies in the purpose of setting up the regulation—the bride’s side should return Cai Li after the marriage rendered impossible in case that the bride pretends to engage with the groom in order to earn a sum of Cai Li but then deny the commitment，leaving the groom with the loss of not only the bride but also the wealth. 

So it makes sense that if the parties have lived together for a period of time，at least they try sincerely to live as husband and wife and share their life to each other—all in all, the relationship is of failure，but not of deceit.

（2） pregnancy or birth of child

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• no pregnancy：75%

• pregnancy: 50%

• child：10%

In many cases, the brides once became pregnant and abortions follow the ending of the relationship. 

Given the fact that pregnancy and abortion bring about physical pain and even irreversible injury to the organs, the bride is allowed to keep a proportion of Cai Li as “compensation”.

In one case, the bride gave birth to a boy after 2-year cohabitation and the court decided that she only needed to return 10% of the Cai Li. The birth of the child made the relationship much more like a marriage（though with no legal status）.

（3） reasonable consumption

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It’s not unusual that after the parties get engaged, the bride’s side may use the Cai Li money to decorate the wedding room or buy valuables（e.g.TV set, fridge，air conditioner, PC）as preparation for the new life of the parties. 

If the bride’s side is able to prove this, the court will consider removing the “reasonable loss”from the part that the bride’s side should return.

Meanwhile, when they live together, Cai Li will be easily consumed together in their daily life and as time goes by, the chance of Cai Li being returned will be lessened.

（4） fault for the break up

As we know，“fault”seems to be a vague concept in a relationship and family case. 

First，every judge has his own opinion about fault and non-fault. 

Second, it is never a case where one party bears 100% fault in a relationship or a family case. 

Third, the burden of proof makes it hard for a party to persuade the court that the other party has fault. 

In order to avoid a minute inspection of the whole story and exacerbating the relationship between the parties, the court places little importance on “fault”. 

Unless serious domestic violence or betray shows up and the victim has abundant evidence, the court is not going to easily render a party faulty.

Interestingly, sometimes the party (especially the groom) who suggests the break up may render faulty. 

In one case, the bride insisted that the in spite that it was the groom who ended the relationship, she still felt strong affection on this guy and was ready to marry him all the time. The court decided that the groom was of fault and the bride part should return only a small part of Cai Li.

In conclusion, the return of Cai Li before the marriage takes place is closely related with the factors whether the two are living together, how long they live together, whether there is preganancy or abortion or birth of a child involved, the reasonable consumption and whether there exists fault.