Ms Julia Chen would very much like to have twins.
While the 28-year-old in Guangzhou, China has yet to find Mr Right, she is set on having children – and hopefully a pigeon pair as well, similar to herself.
Money is tight for the cosmetic retail worker who earns around 6,000 yuan (US$826) a month, around half the city’s 11,300 yuan monthly average. Still, she’s not letting that put her off from motherhood.
“People who are less affluent have their own ways of raising children. Instead of providing material support, you can offer them knowledge and strengthen their character, which I think is more important,” Ms Chen told CNA.
She also has a strong support network. “We have very strong family values, my family meet during festive periods and every now and then,” said Ms Chen, adding that she visits her grandparents at least once every fortnight.
Ms Chen hopes to tie the knot before she turns 30. “I want to find my ideal partner in the next two years,” she said, adding that only after that will she consider family planning.
Analysts say such deeply rooted family values in the wider southern province of Guangdong, coupled with the region’s economic prowess, have been key drivers for it leading the way in births.
For four consecutive years, the province has been the sole one to log more than a million new births annually. It has topped the national birth rate record for six years in a row, based on latest figures.
This comes a year after China relaxed its controversial one-child policy to allow two children per couple, which was further expanded to three children in 2021.
Guangdong logged 1.03 million births last year, topping the national charts and comfortably ahead of the 695,000 tally logged by second-ranked Henan. Shandong, Sichuan and Guizhou completed the top five list.
Guangdong’s birth rate last year came in at 8.12 per 1,000 people, topping national charts. This was a bright spark for China, which logged a record-low 6.39 births per 1,000 people in 2023, down from 6.77 a year before.
