A Computational Study of Xinghun Marriage Between Young Gay People in China Based on Dating Profiles

This study examines the phenomenon of xinghun–a marriage between a homosexual man and a homosexual woman–in contemporary China. Through a quantitative analysis of more than 60,000 dating profiles from the website Chinagayles.com, we examine the motivations and concerns of young gay people in China who seek this type of marriage. The analysis shows that desire for financial and social stability is an important reason for many to engage in xinghun. Concern for parents and a wish to make them happy features as a major topic, and many explicitly search for a partner with a traditional gender expression to satisfy heteronormative expectations. However, the analysis also shows that xinghun cannot only be understood as a response to pressure; some seek xinghun for personal connection and friendship or as a means to gain more freedom and autonomy. Further, there are significant gender differences in approaches to xinghun, seen most clearly in the question of whether or not to have children. Finally, a central methodological contribution of this study is that the simple procedure of extracting n-grams from a large corpus of Chinese text can provide a powerful analytical method.