Song Shu, Tan Sitong and others put forward the idea that marriage should be two of a kind before the Reform Movement of 1898, trying to change the bad habit that women are locked in boudoir and men and women can't communicate freely.

1902, the new policy of the Qing government was promulgated: Manchu and Han could marry, and women did not have to bind their feet, which really created a relaxed and free public opinion environment. At this time, the concept of marriage was also liberated a lot. "Freedom of marriage" frequently appears in newspapers and magazines, becoming an influential and trendy concept. Those young people who have studied abroad have also returned to China, not only bringing back the western concept of marriage, but also taking the lead in becoming practitioners of freedom of marriage.

Extended data:

If you want to get rid of the ideas of old China, you must use mass media. 1902, Tianjin Ta Kung Pao published the first marriage advertisement in the history of China. The content is something like this: a young man came back from studying in the north and had no place to get married. Now he wants to marry an ambitious young woman. She was definitely not entangled, and she was definitely educated in China, sensible and not corrupt.

I can be completely independent. Whether it is Manchu, new or old, poor or rich, beautiful or ugly, I can accept it. Needless to say, this news became the most fashionable news at that time, and since then, marriage advertisements have often appeared in newspapers.