A Chinese man filed a complaint on a government website about the dowry that his girlfriend's parents set for him to pay before they could tie the knot.
The man, identified only by his surname Liu, demanded government action after he was asked to pay 288,000 yuan ($40,000), South China Morning Post reported.
In his complaint, Mr Liu mentioned that his girlfriend's mother claimed that the bride price was the standard dowry paid in their county, which still did not include the required house and a car.
He registered the complaint with the mayor of Zhenyuan County in Gansu province in northcentral China on June 15. He wrote, "When my girlfriend's parents heard we wished to marry, her mother said the minimum local bride price is 288,000 yuan. And that's not even mentioning the flat and the car required. In our county, the bride price is only about 120,000 yuan."
He added, "Since we like each other, I don't even dare to tell her that my family cannot afford such a high bride price."
In the complaint, he used a mix of compliments to convince the official to take action.
He wrote, "There is a saying, 'The poorer the area, the higher the bride price'. Zhenyuan County has experienced rapid economic development in recent years, which even earned recognition from the provincial government. Economic development always liberates ideologies; however, the bride price in some local areas is still remarkably high."
Mr Liu continued to plead to his local government to take action, even citing this year's "No. 1 Central Document," a China Central Committee and State Council guideline released on Feb. 13 meant to fix several issues in China, including exorbitant dowries.
Responding to the letter, a local government replied and said that the overall trend for bride prices in the county has been downwards, adding that they will continue working to reduce it further, the media outlet reported.
However, the man's complaint failed to win any sympathy online as he received a lot of backlash.
A user wrote, "I don't understand; if you cannot agree on the bride price, just don't marry her. You should marry someone else who doesn't ask for a bride price."
Another person commented, "By stirring up such a fuss, even if the girl doesn't ask for a bride price in the end, she won't marry you."
The third user wrote, "I also want to write a letter to the county mayor, saying that housing prices are too high, the high school enrolment rate is too low, hospital charges are too much, there are too few choices of films in the cinema."
Bride prices are a wedding custom in which the man gives money to his future wife's family as a condition of engagement.
