"Naked wedding," a popular catch phrase in China coined amid the background of skyrocketing property prices, reflects the reality of many young people in China today. It refers to a marriage without a house, a car, diamond ring, and fancy wedding ceremony – just a nine-yuan marriage certificate.

A recent online poll about "naked weddings" on Sohu.com that released the results on December 24 show over half of the respondents would not choose to have that kind of a wedding.

For the first question, "Would having a 'naked' wedding be an option," 47 percent of web users supported this, while 43 percent disagreed. The remaining 10 percent were undecided.

When it comes to whether such marriage will be happy, 44 percent voted "Yes" and believed that marriage is based on love not material goods, while the same proportion of "No" voters doubted if this kind of marriage without any physical foundations would work.

"Such a wedding shouldn't be tagged with this title. It is normal for young people. I think the whole society has a twisted concept over marriage and happiness," a respondent named "Iambest" said.

However, "Anju Guest," another Internet user opposed the idea and viewed it as a self-deceiving move, contending that "A nine yuan-certificate marriage without material foundation is as fragile as a sheet of paper and cannot withstand any obstacles."

The poll also showed that 80 percent of male respondents like the idea of "naked weddings", but 70 percent of women were against it.

Meanwhile, some female respondents were willing to make some compromises.

A woman named "Duyiwei" said she could accept being "half naked" and gave a very vivid analogy: houses can be compared to clothes while cars and wedding rings are like hats and scarves. She explained that she can do without accessories but definitely can't do without clothes.

Although "naked wedding" is a buzzword of 2009, this phenomenon does not just belong to young couples born in the 1980s.

"It is nothing to be ashamed of to rent an apartment. In our parents' generation, they married 'naked' and started their life from scratch," web user "Xiaoya679" said.

"Naked wedding" has everything to do with the typical young Chinese couple's dream of owning a house.

"We don't want to empty our wallets to become slaves to a mortgage... I am still young and I hope I will see the day when the property market bubble bursts," wrote Li Fangchao in his story about "naked weddings".

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