2020.4: Wenjing Liu, The Implications of Dating Websites for Leftover Women in China
“Leftover women” (Sheng Nü, “leftover and not desirable women”) first appeared online in 2006. This is a derogatory term used to describe single Chinese women, most of whom are university graduates, have decent jobs, and are financially independent. In Chinese popular media, “leftover women” are primarily stereotyped in two ways: ugly women who are unwanted and picky women who have unrealistic expectations for their partners to be perfect. Despite their differences, both of the stereotypes indicate that single women are problematic and should be disciplined. In fact, a crucial purpose of the discourse of leftover women is to pressure single women to marry in their early or mid-twentis to avoid being devalued as “stale food.”[1]
This term has become popularized at the same time that online dating has boomed in China. According to iResearch (2018), a professional market research and consulting company, in 2017, the online dating industry in China generated four billion RMB, approximately $580 million. iResearch estimated that by 2020, online dating revenue will surpass five billion RMB, or $730 million. Dating websites, which have tenaciously articulated with Confucianism and with some Chinese political practices, have shaped many single women’s living situations in significant ways.
“Articulation” describes the process of linking (articulating), de-linking (disarticulating), and re-linking (re-articulating) different elements. This analytical framework can be used to explore how seemingly “unrelated phenomena—practices, beliefs, texts, social groups, etc.— come to be linked together in a meaningful and seemingly natural way.”[2] Moreover, “articulation” calls on researchers to perceive that, “some connections are more difficult to disarticulate/rearticulate than others,” thus articulations vary in their tenacity.[3]
In order to map the implications of dating websites for single women, we must first realize that dating websites are always articulated with other elements, the most two predominant ones in the PRC context being Confucianism and Chinese political practices. Confucianism has reemerged in contemporary China as a state sponsored ideology. The most explicit examples are the mushrooming of Confucius institute, classrooms, and training programs, both in China and abroad. Confucianism emphasizes the unparalleled importance for women to marry. In contemporary urban China, a traditional gender ideology which dictates “men leading the outer domain and women the inner domain” continues to be powerful.[4] In addition, many domestic political practices, such as disfavoring single people’s requests to buy apartments and articles that target single women in governmental websites, also pressure women to get married. For example, in 2018, the Shanghai city government announced that no single local residents would be allowed to buy apartments. Because of this policy, people who want to buy an apartment in Shanghai must have a marriage certificate. Moreover, government-sponsored media have published many articles that criticize and even shame unmarried women. In one such article, entitled, “How Many Leftover Women Deserve Our Sympathy?” the author writes that, “As women age, they are worth less and less. So by the time they get their Master’s and Ph.D., they become old and ugly like white pearls become yellow and lose their shine.”[5] These political practices reveal the Chinese government’s great concern for single women who fail to “tame” single men who are often viewed politically as potential disruptive forces.[6]
Confucianism and many Chinese political practices have generated pressures and difficulties that many single women have to struggle with. However, when dating websites are articulated with Confucianism and political practices, single women’s living situations become more complicated. During the Spring Festival in February 2014, Baihe.com, a leading Chinese online dating company, released the commercial “Because Love Won’t Wait,” to persuade single women to get married by utilizing the Confucian quality of “filial piety.” The commercial begins with a single young woman’s monologue “This year I must get married. I should do so considering my grandma’s wishes and health condition. Whenever she meets me, she only asks me one question ‘Have you gotten married?’”[7] The camera then shows this young woman’s grandma as she increasingly ages but keeps asking the same question and becomes visibly disappointed even though her grandchild earned a university degree and found a job. The commercial has a “happy” ending: with the help of Baihe.com, the young woman finally finds a husband and tells her grandma with happy tears, “Grandma, I got married.” Many dating websites seize the opportunities provided by the Spring Festival to play commercials which emphasize the necessity of marriage. These commercials are ubiquitous on television as well as in subways, airports, and shopping malls. For example, on the eve of the 2019 Spring Festival (February 4), Zhenai.com, another leading dating website in China, released a commercial entitles, “It is the Movement to Find Love” on CCTV (China Central Television) channels.
Besides promoting the importance of marriage, dating websites also enhance traditional gender roles. For example, as a user of Zhenai.com, I receive regular text messages introducing me to potential partners with a special emphasis on their flattering salaries to indicate that they are desirable breadwinners. In fact, online dating websites in China reinforce traditional gender roles, which contributes to the belief that marriage is a non-negotiable necessity for single women. Furthermore, due to dating websites’ practices of advertising their technological products as the solutions to “fix” single women’s “problems,” a woman’s singlehood is represented and interpreted as a treatable problem and, “[the woman] must in a sense actively decide not to be treated.”[8] This representation and interpretation legitimatizes the transfer of the burden of the governmental and cultural anxieties towards social stability onto single women, with dating websites playing an important role in “helping” women to solve the problem. Other significant issues become less essential, such as changing traditional Chinese cultural ideology that prefers boys over girls which has resulted in the lack of “available” women to “tame” bachelors, enacting rigid laws to protect women’s rights in marriages, or other cultural and political concerns.
In the past decades, the rapid rise of China as an influential global power is astonishing. However, China’s rapid development has failed women in some respects. For example, sexism is still prevalent. Moreover, science and technology can be asymmetrically gendered. So, next time, when we celebrate China’s development and the power of science and technology, can we pause to ask ourselves: how are women doing?
Wenjing Liu earned her doctorate in Rhetoric, Theory, and Culture at Michigan Technology University in January 2020. Her research interests include the theory and practice of Cultural Studies, Gender Studies, Science and Technology Studies, and Contemporary China Studies. She can be reached at lwenjing@mtu.edu.
References
Baihe.com. 2014. Because Love Won’t Wait. Accessed January 23, 2019: http://www.iqiyi.com/w_19rrbikxx9.html
Fincher, L.H. 2014. Leftover Women: The Resurgence of Gender Inequality in China. London: Zed Books.
“How many Leftover Women Deserve our Sympathy?” March 10, 2011. Women of China.cn. Accessed January 23, 2019: http://m.kdnet.net/share-8839395.html.
iResearch. 2018. “Analytical Report of the Industry of Online Dating Industry in China. Accessed February 1, 2020: http://report.iresearch.cn/report/201802/3169.shtml
“New! The Policies Concerning Buying Apartments in Twenty-six Cities in China.” 2018. Sohu.com, May 30. Accessed February 1, 2020: http://www.sohu.com/a/233452129_757183.
Rodman, G.B. 1996. Elvis after Elvis: The Posthumous Career of a Living Legend. London & New York: Routledge.
Slack, J.D., & Whitt, L.A. 1993. “Ethics and Cultural Studies.” In Larry Grossberg, C. Nelson, and P. Treichler (editors). Cultural Studies. New York: Routledge, 571-592.
To, S. 2015. China’s Leftover Women: Late Marriage among Professional Women and its Consequences. New York: Routledge.
Wajcman, J. 1991. Feminism Confronts Technology. University Park: The Pennsylvania State University.
Wang, T. 2011. “Towards a Proper Relation between Men and Women: Beyond Masculinism and Feminism.” In R. Fan (editor). The Renaissance of Confucianism in Contemporary China. New York: Springer, 91-107.
Zhang, J., & Sun, P. 2014. “When are you Going to Get Married: Parental Matchmaking and Middle-class Women in Contemporary Urban China.” In D. S. Davis, & S. L. Friedman (editors). Wives, Husbands, and Lovers: Marriage and Sexuality in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Urban China. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 118-144.
Zhenai.com. 2019. It is the Moment to Find Love. Accessed February 1, 2020: https://v.qq.com/x/page/w0835bymvx1.html
Notes
[1] See Fincher 2014, and To 2015.
[2] Rodman, 1996, 24.
[3] Slack 1993, 27.
[4] Zhang & Sun 2013, 138.
[5] This article was original published on the website of All-China Women’s Federation, which is a governmental organization that aims to promote gender equality in China. However, this article was revoked later from this website. But I managed to retrieve this article from an online forum (http://m.kdnet.net/share-8839395.html) in which a user copied the content of the article before it was revoked. I translated this article from Chinese into English.
[6] Fincher 2104, 22-23.
[7] “Because Love Won’t Wait,” 2014.
[8] Wajcman 1991, 62.