APPEAL OF WEDDING CEREMONIES DECLINING

Experts say the need for expensive, elaborate events is discouraging many members of the younger generation

The nation's marriage rate has plunged to record lows in recent decades. Among those who still bother to tie the knot, a small but growing number are skipping the exhausting — and sometimes embarrassing — extravaganza that marks a typical Chinese wedding day.

However, doing away with the overly commercialized rituals -such as hiring fleets of luxury cars, throwing expensive banquets and making gushing speeches in front of strangers — usually provokes headwinds from family elders.

"The conventional wedding ceremony seems to me more like a show, and I didn't think I could do it," said Xu Haoqi, a tech worker in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, who had a plain ceremony in Luoyang in his home province of Henan in April.