Chinese consumers were once flooded with enthusiasm over Valentine’s Day, the unofficial Cyber-Valentine’s Day (520) and tradition-rich Qixi. But the electric charge around love festivals is dimming.
Just five or six years ago, love-centered festivals were a reliable consumer engine based on gifts, jewelry and flowers, while Qixi held deep cultural resonance. But now, those surges are sputtering, and luxury brands, which have been reliant on those sales spikes since 2016 (Dior was the first luxury name to launch a 520 campaign in China), are facing a reckoning.
The waning glow of romance festivals
According to official government statistics, marriage registrations have declined by more than half between 2014 and 2024. Amid this decrease, a rising number of young people don’t expect to pair off — singlehood is no longer considered a gap to fill, but a legitimate life choice. According to a 2024 survey by state media Southern Weekly, 30.1% of surveyed Chinese university students have little desire to find a romantic partner, while 11.1% say they “completely don’t want to” find one. The same survey suggests that among older age groups, 35 to 44-year-olds have the highest rate of unwillingness to marry, at 32.6%.
According to Alexis Bonhomme, CEO of strategy and data agency Trinity Asia, “There are three layers behind this cooling: economics, social contract and self-definition — and they all reinforce each other.” The cost of “doing adulthood” has outpaced income growth, he notes. When property markets weaken and household confidence falters, “marriage stops looking like security and starts looking like liability”. In that sense, anxiety — not romance — has become the organizing force for most under-35s.
Bonhomme adds that younger, educated women are increasingly opting out of a deal that no longer looks attractive. “Marriage in China still comes with asymmetric expectations: childcare, eldercare, emotional labor, and, in many cases, financial contribution to housing,” he says. “Younger women are asking a very simple question: what do I get in return?”
The same pattern is mirrored in consumption habits. Bonhomme observes that “status through visible consumption is less compelling for the middle” consumer segment, with roughly 45% of aspirational Chinese clients cutting back on luxury purchases in the past year. Women, in particular, are no longer buying into the “marry well, consume more” promise, as they access status through self-investment in beauty, wellness and jewelry as alternative assets.
Bvlgari’s Valentine’s Day campaign.
Photo: Courtesy of Bvlgari
