Love Blossoms in Taichung! According to the statistics from the Ministry of the Interior, the crude marriage rates of Taichung City in 2021 and 2022 were 5.46% and 5.9% respectively, placing Taichung at the top spot among the six municipalities for 2 consecutive years. On the eve of the romantic “May 20, I love you” (May 20 phonetically represents “I love you” in Chinese), the Civil Affairs Bureau of Taichung City Government released a love confession video titled “Let’s Get Married”. Starred by “Xiao Hua” who is a rising star in the advertising industry, this video challenges the gender stereotypes “men’s proposals are romantic and women’s proposals are pressuring for marriage” and creates a sweet atmosphere that highlighting the notion that love in Taichung is great happiness. The Civil Affairs Bureau welcomes everyone to go to its Fanpage to watch and share the video.
Wu Shih-Wei, Director of the Civil Affairs Bureau at the Taichung City Government, highlighted that Taichung City not only boasts the highest marriage rate among the six municipalities, but also ranks second in terms of crude birth rate at 6.35% in 2022. In addition, the birth rate in Taichung City decreased slightly from 18,304 in 2021 to 17,880 in 2022, presenting a small decline of 2.3%, which is the lowest among all regions in the country. Despite the increasingly serious social trend of low marriage and birth rates in the country, the team of the Taichung City Government, led by Mayor Lu Shiow-yen, has consistently achieved a commendable performance at the top. This reflects the City Government’s efforts in enhancing social welfare, implementing educational and cultural measures, and improving overall living conditions throughout the city. For example, increasing birth subsidies, reduction in public daycare fees, doubling public daycare and preschool capacity etc. Through multiple channels, the City Government encourages citizens to “be daring in getting married, be willing to give birth, and be happy to raise their children”, enabling them to envision a happy future and continuously increase their willingness to get married and have children.
Director Wu emphasized that gender equality and women's rights are key policy directions of the City Government. This video not only showcases the happy atmosphere of love in Taichung City, but also promotes the awareness of gender equity and breaks gender stereotypes. As marriage is a matter of two individuals, the one making the proposal is simply the one that dares to show his/her love and sincerity. This shall not be differentiated based on gender and both men and women are encouraged to pursue love. Director Wu further mentioned that the City Government will continue to, from the perspective of citizens, build a livable environment that is friendly to people of all ages, create the happiest home for citizens, and share this happiness with everyone in order to create a new era of prosperity and sharing.
The Civil Affairs Bureau stated that to enhance citizens' willingness to get married, the City Government launched an innovative themed social gathering for singles in 2021. This event provides a natural and non-embarrassing environment for making friends and has successfully captured citizens' attention with an increasing matching rate. This year, the City Government has further upgraded this event with 10 hobby-themed and 5 locally-inspired activities in 21 sessions. Citizens are welcome to visit the event website (https://pse.is/4uuxr5) for more details about this event and to submit applications. Let's seize destiny and encounter wonderful love.

The Civil Affairs Bureau said that the promotional video “Let’s Get Married” has been published on the Bureau’s YouTube channel (https://youtu.be/shS_qt5zNvU) and Facebook Fanpage (https://fb.watch/kCEil49RuD/?mibextid=Nif5oz). Everyone is welcome to watch the video online and share it with others. Furthermore, the Bureau also integrated information about the marriage photo wall in 29 household registration offices (including the branch office) on its official website (https://reurl.cc/mvRKm9) for the reference of individuals who are planning or considering getting married. This aims to help them to capture even greater happiness and radiance in their photos, creating beautiful and everlasting memories.