Buying the ‘Right’ sperm: racialised appearance and social visibility in Chinese lesbian families

China’s marital eligibility rules restrict Chinese lala (lesbian) families’ access to authorised domestic assisted reproduction, leading some to purchase sperm through informal domestic or cross-border commercial channels. Drawing on 30 in-depth interviews conducted in 2024–2025 with members of 28 lala families, this article examines sperm-provider selection among the 25 families that purchased sperm and entered an IVF pathway. Families evaluated providers’ health, education, occupation, ancestry and appearance when imagining their children’s future lives. Some valued physical features associated with White ancestry but sought to avoid a conspicuously ‘mixed-race’ appearance. Anticipated attention to children’s appearance or parentage sometimes altered the importance assigned to provider characteristics and, in some cases, the provider ultimately selected. Accounts after childbirth described differences between expected and actual appearances, alongside varied interpretations of comments about children’s visible differences. Commercial channels differed in the candidates they offered, transaction costs and access to information for evaluating providers. The analysis shows how expectations of children’s social reception shape the value that Chinese lala families attach to racialised appearance, while commercial arrangements affect which provider attributes families can assess and which preferences they can pursue.