Although love affairs outside marriage have stirred loyalty crises among some Chinese couples in recent years, a recent survey indicated that concepts like monogamy and marital loyalty are still most valued by Chinese people.

The survey in Tianjin Municipality, north China, shows that people regard divorce as their right just like marriage, which nearly 70 percent of the surveyed resort to because they would not tolerate extramarital sex of their spouses.

The survey was launched by the Tianjin Women's Federation in 1,200 families in six districts in the city. Of the total surveyed, 55.14 percent were females and 88.2 percent were married.

Those surveyed said that marriage would make people happy and hoped it would be based on equality, mutual love and trust. The survey shows that 81.7 percent of people regard "love" as the most important factor that keeps marriage, 12.1 percent of them pin their marriage on children and only 1.5 percent of them take economic factors.

If problems occurred in the marriage, according to the survey, 44.1 percent of the surveyed said they wouldn't divorce immediately, 31.1 percent of them would make decisions according to the situation and the results it would cause. If they had to something, 78 percent of the people said they would choose to divorce peacefully.

(Xinhua News Agency June 5, 2004)