On the Transactionalisation of Conjugal Bonds: A Feminist Materialist Analysis of Chinese<i>Xinghun</i>Marriages

Abstract

Regardless of their sexualities, the Chinese face familial and social expectations to marry the opposite sex once they reach the appropriate age. Queers deal with this pressure by doing xinghun. While the relational and psycho-social effects of these ‘cooperative marriages’ between knowing gay men and lesbians have been extensively documented, xinghun remains relatively unexamined at the material level. By applying a feminist materialist approach to study how Chinese queers manage xinghun, we found that Chinese queers evaluate potential xinghun partners according to their economic status. To resolve the complications of related issues, Chinese queers spend large sums of money to maximise the chances of their xinghun succeeding. Moreover, in China’s highly patriarchal society, xinghun wives demand economic compensation for their perceived sacrifice. By regarding the transactionalisation of xinghun conjugal bond as part of the meta-changes happening in neoliberal Chinese society, this paper refines our understanding of xinghun beyond the seeming dichotomy between queerness and heteronormativity.