China cracks down on lavish weddings, wants ‘Xi Jinping Thought’ incorporated

China announced it was cracking down on lavish weddings in the country. (Getty Images)

China announced this weekend it was cracking down on increasingly extravagant and over-the-top weddings in the country, urging people to “integrate core socialist values” and incorporate the “Xi Jinping Thought” instead.

China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs, during a weekend conference on wedding reform, called for an end to “vulgar wedding practices” that many couples and families have allegedly implemented recently. The practices include expensive wedding gifts, lavish ceremonies and high prices being paid to the bride and her family, the Telegraph reported.

“[The weddings should] integrate core socialist values and Chinese traditional culture into the construction of marriage and family,” the ministry said, according to the Telegraph.

The ministry urged couples to follow a more traditional, frugal wedding practice that includes the “Xi Jinping Thought,” the Chinese president's political ideology.

The cost of weddings in China’s rural regions have skyrocketed in the last two decades, the Guardian reported. The crackdown also aims to reduce the monetary amount women and their families are offered during weddings. Dubbed “bride prices” or “reverse dowries,” the groom sometimes shells out thousands of dollars, along with other assets such as houses, just to tie the knot.

In August, officials in the farming village of Da’anliu in China’s Hubei province capped bride prices at 20,000 yuan, or $2,800, after some families were set to pay obscene amounts, according to the Guardian. Some were reportedly ordered to pay more than 200,000 yuan, or $30,000.

Several other counties throughout China have also implemented wedding restrictions to cap rising costs.