Marrying later in life is a very modern trend in China, which worried many parents. This is a senior citizen's response in an interview regarding new laws: "Being 30 and Unmarried Should be Illegal and Punished!"

Starting from July 1^st, China’s new filial piety law took effect. In an attempt to revise the country’s law on the Protection of the Rights and Interests of the Elderly, a clause was added that “family members living apart from the elderly should frequently visit or send greetings to the elderly persons.”
Filial piety has been seen as a top virtue in China for thousands of years. As the old saying goes: “Filial piety comes before all virtues.” And in a country where 26% of its entire population is said to be over 65 by the year 2050, it’s understandable why the concept is still relevant.
This is not the first attempt in which the Chinese government tries to revive this traditional value. Back in 2012, China’s National Bureau of Senior Affairs released a list of New 24 Filial Exemplars, giving the thousand-year old concept new applications in today’s China.
The new law has been controversial. Some thought it made sense since the respect of and care for the elderly are generally on the decline in China. Most thought it was ridiculous to regulate something as personal as paying visits to parents. And most of all, how often constitutes frequent anyway?
Youku, China’s Youtube equivalent, recently went out to interview people on the streets about their take on the new law. One elderly man’s answer surprised all viewers and, on purpose or not, brought up another population problem that China is facing now.
When asked about how he felt about the new filial piety law, the old guy said, quietly passionately:

“My kids shouldn’t be treated as a violator of any law if they don’t’ visit me frequently. Instead, [if they are] 30 years old and still unmarried, now that should be treated as a violation of law. They should be sentenced.”

And guess what, it indeed used to be a “violation” of some sort in ancient China. Filial piety is the most important of all virtues, and not having children was seen, for a very long time, as the most severe violation of filial piety. In old times, men can dismiss his wife or keep marring new wives if the original one fails to give birth to a son. Time has changed but adults are still expected to get married and to reproduce. That’s how it works in the Middle Kingdom.
In today’s China in particular, problems of unmarried men and women are hitting headlines everywhere. The infamous “leftover women” (well-educated, well-paid urban working females) has evolved into a cultural phenomenon. On the flip side, China will have over 30 million bachelors by the year 2020, much thanks to the one child policy and a cultural preference of boys. While a lot of the country’s young are actually enjoying their single life, they are no doubt under a lot of pressure to get married when there are parents who think it is a crime to be single at 30.
When women turn 30 and are still single, they shop and spend. But when millions of 30-year-old men stay unmarried, on top of a dim job market, there will be social problems. We will probably soon see “Get married before 30” be written in law, as the elderly guy wished.  And believe it or not, life sentence (无期徒刑, wu qi tu xing) is pronounced exactly the same as no wife sentence (无妻徒刑, wu qi tu xing) in Chinese.
The video clip has been watched over 65k times after only 11 hours, and started to make waves on Weibo, China’s Twitter like microblog service. Comments by the elderly guy starts at 2’39”.


http://offbeatchina.com/an-elderly-chinese-mans-take-on-new-filial-piety-law-those-who-are-still-single-at-the-age-of-30-should-be-sentenced