Have you ever heard the phrase ‘naked wedding’? It is a recent addition to my lexicon. But holding a naked wedding is an increasingly widespread practice in China, and is not what the name implies. Instead, it is a marriage stripped of nearly all of the traditional ‘must-haves’ for a Chinese couple, such as owning a house, a car, and an expensive wedding ceremony.

Such frugal nuptials are at odds with China’s well-established customs. This is not always done out of choice. Instead, China’s increasingly unaffordable property prices have made it a necessity for many couples. Problematically for Beijing, high house prices not only pose a threat to social stability, but financial, economic, and political stability too. The challenge for China’s policymakers is to reduce that threat prior to the bubble bursting, as bubbles invariably do…