When I told my Chinese friends I was getting married this May, they wrinkled their foreheads to resemble walnuts and vaulted their eyebrows into boomerangs.

"But you're so young!" they insisted.

When I told my foreign friends, they also spoke exclamatorily, making proclamations such as: "Ooh, congratulations!"

Age is among the slew of cultural differences between Americans and Chinese when it comes to matrimony.

I'm 25, and most of my Chinese friends swear they wouldn't even ponder getting hitched much before 30- and wouldn't wait much later, either.

The average age of a first marriage in the United States was 27.5 in 2006, when the US Census Bureau conducted the latest American Community Survey. Michigan, the state in which my wife and I were born and raised, hits this number right on the nose.

The curious thing about my local friends' reactions is that the average for China is 23.7, according to a 2007 Horizon Research Consulting Group survey.

Apparently, none of these pals, who are overwhelmingly middle-class urbanites -- a demographic that tends to marry later- saw the survey. Most of them say the main reason they seek to tie the knot around 30 is financial stability. Before strolling down the aisle, they should own a house, and many also believe they ought to have a car.

But I do have one buddy who doesn't fit this mold. He's my age, and recently popped the question. He doesn't have a house and isn't even thinking of getting a car.

The two of us recently joined two older friends for a dinner at which our age and marriages became the main course of table talk. We were both grilled as to why we chose to marry so young and shot back shockingly opposite responses.

I married Carol because we rarely bicker, never get sick of each other no matter how much time we spend together, and when we're apart, we can't wait to be reunited.

I love her so much.

My friend is getting married because he and his girlfriend battle constantly, easily tire of one another and aren't always pining for the other's presence when they're apart.

He loves her so much.

Our tablemates congratulated me on my partnership and urged my friend to exercise caution in his.

No matter what culture you hail from, there are a lot of unwritten rules about how and whom one should marry.

For example, it's generally thought of as unwise in both the United States and China to wed at age 18. My parents did so 45 years ago and are happy together today.

Also, it's considered foolish to rush into marriage after only knowing each other for as little as three months. But that's exactly what Carol's parents did 26 years ago, and they are happy together today.

Another widely accepted no-no is getting married because you and your partner fight tooth and nail, need a lot of space from one another and aren't always missing each other when you're apart.

A lot of talk about relationships and wedlock I've engaged in with both foreign and Chinese friends in Beijing are anchored on cultural differences. The rest has focused on the similarities, especially the "should nots".

But individual personalities exercise more power than either inter- or intra-cultural norms when it comes to love -- a pursuit in which rules are made to be broken, and sometimes breaking them is the only way to make sure hearts aren't.

I, for one, congratulate my soon-to-be-wed friend. His marriage might be an exception to the rule, and for that very reason, might be an exceptional marriage, one that's likely to last till death do them part.

(selected from 101 Silly Stories from Cheerful China by China Daily, published by China Intercontinental Press in 2010)