Picture this: You’re scrolling through a dating app. You see the usual information — their age, their job, maybe a line or two about their hobbies.

You check out their list of dealbreakers. The demands read: No siblings. No history of living with an ex. No history of soliciting prostitutes.

What sounds like a dystopian thought experiment is the daily reality on Chinese matchmaking platforms, where marriage is increasingly treated not as a pursuit of personal romance, but as a demographic crisis to be managed.

Lynette Lu is a PhD candidate in Digital Humanities at the University of Bern. Her work revolves around a painstaking critical discourse analysis of Chinese matchmaking culture. By manually analyzing thousands of online dating profiles, Lynette is uncovering the profound linguistic and sociological biases hiding in plain sight.

Martin Ritzmann sat down with Lynette to unpack the bleak realities of this highly curated marriage market.

Links:

• Lynette Lu on ResearchGate

Related Materials:

• Leta Hong Fincher, Leftover Women: The Resurgence of Gender Inequality in China, 10th Anniversary Edition. Bloomsbury Academic, 2023.

• CNA Insider, “How Matchmaking Agencies In China Are Helping Young Men Find Love,” YouTube video.

• Zhaorui Lü, “Navigating the Market for Love: The Chinese Party-State as Matchmaker in the Early Reform Era,” Made in China Journal, 24 March 2025.

Additional Voices by Jennifer Solenthaler, Heidi Mercki and Ueli Khan.

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