China matchmaking firms feed growing hunger for live-in sons-in-law from affluent families, lazy men need not apply
- Service turns tables on tradition, introduces men to prospective in-laws
- Strict rules, must earn over US$14,000 a year, taller than 170cm, no tattoos
Growing numbers of men in China are taking advantage of a matchmaking service which turns customary marriage practices on their head and could ease the burdens of being a traditional husband.
However, the increasingly popular “live-in son-in-law” matchmaking service, which seeks to match single men with wealthy women, has a golden rule – lazy men need not apply.
The Jindianzi matchmaking agency in Hangzhou’s Xiaoshan district in Zhejiang province, eastern China, which specialises in such introductions, went viral during the Chinese Spring Festival.
The tradition in China is for the woman to marry into the man’s family, but the live-in son-in-law service turns the tables on this notion.
Under this arrangement, the husband moves into the wife’s property, and their children take her surname, therefore that of his father-in-law in most cases.
The idea, which has only gained popularity nationwide in recent years, has existed in Xiaoshan for decades.