Working at a notary agency in Kunming, southwest China's Yunnan Province, Jia has seen a growing number of young clients come in for consultation in drafting their wills in recent years. Interestingly, the items they list have expanded from traditional properties such as real estate or cars to, for example, virtual assets.

"A growing number of young people no longer consider the topic of death a taboo as they have come to realize that legally registering their will and testament is a good way to make sure specific properties go to specific people," she told Beijing Review.

Thinking ahead 

Accidents such as the crash of a China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737-800 in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in March last year and the years-long COVID-19 pandemic have contributed to the trend, according to Jia.

"More people have realized just how fragile life can be," Jia said. "You never know which one will come first: your tomorrow or your end. There are things beyond our control. What we can do is to make arrangements for the worst case scenario—i.e., death—in advance."

The notary agency has seen a clear uptick in the number of young clients drafting and legalizing their wills since 2020, when the pandemic just hit the world. Jia revealed that today, among all clients registering their last wishes at the office, about 20 percent are millennials.

Along with this young influx come new features. The property of China's younger generations is more diverse, involving more unconventional items such as social media or online gaming accounts. They also tend to make arrangements for the distribution of items that might not be worth a lot of money but have emotional value.

For example, in her testament, Jia noted that all her CDs are to go to her best female friend. "We share a similar taste in music and the CDs I have collected over time carry memories of us listening to music together in earlier years," she said. As the keyboard player in the notary agency's band, Jia owns the intellectual property (IP) rights to some original music. She also included this musical IP in her will.

There is nothing in the Chinese law that requires a will to be registered for it to be valid, but before the Civil Code of the People's Republic of China, marking the first time a unified civil law framework has been created to integrate most of the former substantial civil substantive laws in China, took effect on January 1, 2021, notarized wills did enjoy priority in terms of execution.

Today, other types of testaments such as the holographic will, a handwritten and testator-signed document, or nuncupative will, i.e., the last wishes a testator delivers orally, have the same legal status. Testators do need additional procedures to prove that the wills were not produced under duress; for instance, nuncupative wills require the presence of two or more witnesses," Jia said. "To avoid all problems or concerns, it's still recommended to seek professional aid to register your will.

Registering their last wishes at a notary agency will cost the testator a little over 1,000 yuan ($140). The testator can also appoint an executor of their will. "It is a very cost-effective way to minimize all property issues in the event something fatal happens," she said. "I suggest all people draft and register their wills sooner rather than later," Jia said. Her mother already created hers several years ago.

Wider recognition 

The China Will Registration Center, a public institution co-initiated by the China Aging Development Foundation and Beijing Sunny Senior Health Foundation in 2013, has also seen major changes in the country's registration of people's last wishes.

Data from the center show that as of late 2022, over 250,000 wills had been registered with the center nationwide. The average age of people doing so has decreased from 77.43 to 68.13 over the past decade. In 2013, a survey conducted by the center showed only 12.4 percent of the respondents thought it necessary to legally write down their last wishes, whereas today, 88.05 percent believe creating a will to be "very important."

A Beijing resident surnamed Chen, aged 60-plus, has gone for consultation in drafting her will at the center's Beijing branch office several times.

Following retirement, her husband and she enjoy travel by car, driving to new destinations all over the country on every chance they get. "My older brother works in the legal sector and kept saying I should register my will to avoid property issues in the event we get into a fatal accident during one of our road trips," Chen told Beijing Review.

"I've also noticed several friends, who are all my age, have been weighing the pros and cons of registering their wills, but it's taking them a bit longer to act on it," she said. "Accepting the notion of officially writing down your last wishes is just a change in mindset; it appears the younger generations have less of an issue with flipping that switch."

"We have seen a growing number of young people consulting and registering their wills starting from 2020," Hu Haiyang from the center's Beijing branch office told Beijing Review. "The young show a more rational attitude when it comes to matters of life and death."

Since 2018, the institution has released a white paper annually based on the will registrations with the center over the previous year. On March 21, it released a white paper based on previous years' data, revealing that the number of wills registered by people under the age of 60 (categorized as the "young and middle-aged groups") increased from 279 in 2017 to 3,467 in 2022.

For the first time, the latest white paper specifically dedicated a chapter to the will registration of singles. By late last year, over 1,300 singles recorded their testaments with the center. A small number this may seem, but a growing trend it represents.

Hu told the story of a twenty-something female client who registered her last wishes with the center and noted her apartment was to go to her best female friend as the friend comes from a poor family and this apartment in Beijing might help ease the friend's financial pressures.

"It is common for young singles to include both family members and friends as their successors," Hu said.

Hu also noticed a difference in attitude between young and old(er) people when recording videos in which the testators read out their last wishes, which usually open with "After my death..." "Many seniors will cry upon saying these words out loud, but young testators can read them calmly as death still seems a world away," Hu said.

(Print Edition Title: My Will, My Way)

Copyedited by Elsbeth van Paridon 

Comments to yuanyuan@cicgamericas.com