Elite Dating in China: How Education Shapes Modern Relationships

In China, Dating Apps Catering to the Elite Are Predominantly About Social Class

In an era where higher education has become increasingly accessible, a new generation of dating platforms is emerging. These services m at matching singles based on their academic background-a practice known as educational homogamy. If you meet your partner during university days, this comes naturally; however, after graduation, finding someone with similar academic qualifications becomes challenging.

As such, one of China's pioneering dating sites, Shiji Jiayuan, launched its platform around the early 2000s targeting singles who had graduated from a bachelor's degree program. But as Chinese higher education expanded over the past two decades, educated daters began to seek more exclusive alternatives. Today, there’s an entire ecosystem of platforms like Mosheng Huak and Qingteng Zhilian that cater only to alumni from elite institutions in China and abroad. These platforms even require users to verify their degrees before being allowed access.

To better understand how these platforms are transforming the Chinese dating market, I collaborated with two fellow scholars to study one of the oldest and largest online dating platforms for educational elites. Established in 2015 under a pseudonym Happy Elites, this platform offers a rigorous screening process ensuring only alumni of top-tier schools can access its services. The management emphasizes it serves an elite community exclusively.

Education alone does not guarantee compatibility, but it narrows the potential pool significantly. Analyzing profiles posted on the site provides insight into how China's elite reproduce themselves through dating practices. Each profile often detls their privileged family backgrounds, appreciation for strict parenting styles, and the varied experiences that are typically only avlable to those who have been well-educated.

One of the most common motifs in Happy Elites' profiles is a focus on a healthy lifestyle, suggesting an embodiment of cultural capital according to sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. Users often require matches who do not smoke or drink frequently, prefer regular gym visits, and are early risers. They also mention parents as strict yet loving, and upbringing surrounded by literature and art.

According to interviews with Happy Elites' staff, they argue that the platform's emphasis on educational homogamy is correct. The match success rate is sd to be significantly higher than those of traditional dating sites due to similarities in family background, upbringing, hobbies shared between users with similar trts.

By prioritizing education over other factors, the significant increase in university enrollment since the late 1990s has intensified its role in modern relationships in China. Graduates from elite institutions are more likely to come from urban families with high economic and social capital-a tr reflected in Happy Elites' user statistics.

As of April 2022, 45.3 of male users and 24.1 of female users boast an annual income over 500,00 yuan $69,000. This number indicates that the platform is matching economic elites under the guise of educational homogamy.

This has significant implications for China's future. Education acts as a filter in assortative mating choosing partners with similar trts, leading to unions between privileged families. Well-educated couples are more likely to transmit their status to their children, sing them to high-quality yet expensive schools to ensure they remn ahead of peers.

Without an easy solution, prioritizing funding for non-elite universities and narrowing the gap with elite institutions could offer a potential way forward. This would help promote social mobility in China's highly stratified higher education system.

was adapted from a paper published by Chinese Sociological Review.

Header image: Juanma HacheVCG

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