Commercial and tech innovations are transforming everyday life and love for singletons in China.
Examining China’s booming singles economy can help us better understand the complex reality of single-person households, says an expert from UNSW’s School of Humanities & Languages.
“The population of single people who live alone – in China and across the globe – is growing fast,” says Associate Professor Pan Wang. “Single dwellers are multifarious, from young to advanced in age, comprising the unmarried, separated, divorced and widowed.”
The decline in marriages and the rise in single and ageing populations have created a sharp rise in single-person households worldwide. Sweden has the highest percentage of solo dwellers (47%) with OECD countries, such as Japan, England, France, Germany, Norway and Switzerland, projected to reach 38% by 2030.
China has more than 125 million one-person households – one in four households – according to its 2020 Census. This marks a significant shift from traditional China when four generations living under one roof was the ideal, says A/Prof. Wang.
“Today’s thriving singles economy reflects deeper transformations in gender relations, familial expectations and marriage, intimacy and family life,” she says. “China’s rapid economic transformation and the relaxation of residency requirements have increased both its rural-to-urban migration and its ageing population.
“Living standards have improved and people are paying more attention to their health. Wellbeing receives a lot of support from medical resources and the government. The changing nature of relationships has been further shaped by policy, market forces and the proliferation of digital media.”
The rapid rise of the one-person household has created a burgeoning market for social and residential needs, she says. Products and services tailored to people living alone are increasingly visible in major metropolitan centres, such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.
“Single-person karaoke booths known as mini KTVs are popping up on commercial streets as well as one-person hotpot restaurants, sometimes with a toy on a chair that you can choose to eat with,” she says.
“In real estate, micro-apartments are appearing alongside home appliances for one, including mini-kettles and mini-fridges, and solo travel packs developed by travel agents for singletons.”
These targeted resources mean single dwellers are more equipped for a solo lifestyle; this both normalises and reinforces this way of living, she says. “However, this high-potential market risks creating a kind of networked loneliness, reinforcing isolation and loneliness and commodifying intimacy.”
A/Prof. Wang’s research explores gender, media, love, marriage and family in China. She examines China's rapidly changing demographics, including declining marriage and fertility rates and rising single populations.
She is the author of Love and Marriage in Globalizing China (2015) and more recently Love and Romance in China: From Comrades and Partners to AI Lovers (2025). Love and Romance in China explores the changing socio-cultural expectations around intimacy from the founding of the People's Republic of China through the Cultural Revolution to contemporary China.
Her research considers government statistics on marriages and divorces, ethnographic observations and interviews as well as diverse cultural forms, including Maoist folk songs, poems, posters, love letters, media and online dating websites.
“While marriage has declined in importance among young people in the cities, this has not meant a decline in the desire for intimacy, physical contact or emotional attachment,” she says.
Instead of looking for this in marriage and family, young people are turning toward the burgeoning business of intimacy, she says. “Technology provides new means for connection, shaping intimacy and social norms.
“China’s growing date-renting business is one such innovation, where individuals can participate as both buyers and sellers, hiring or offering themselves as dates for short-term activities, such as dinner, movies or family visits.
“This kind of work is very flexible and can be done part time for pocket money. Many may not necessarily charge a fee. They accompany their clients, make friends, and it may lead to a serious relationship or even marriage.”
Similarly, in ‘piece-together marriages’, unmarried men and women are paired through an agreed arrangement to form a family. “This niche initiative has emerged in Shanghai, Beijing, and in some other cosmopolitan cities, where so-called leftover men and women enter into these arrangements to form marital partnerships.”
Commercial media providers have moved in offering a range of TV dating shows, dating websites and apps to help single people find love and sustain relationships, A/Prof. Wang says.
“The growth of reality matchmaking television in China reflects popular anxieties about love and romance,” she says. “Participants on dating shows, such as If You Are the One or Dating with the Parents, receive dating advice from ‘relationship experts’.
“This often occurs in front of a studio audience, encouraging idealised relational attitudes and behaviours to its broad viewership.”
Dating companies and apps, such as Jiayuan, Baihe, Zhen’ai, Youyuan and MoMo, are aimed at singles who intend to find a date, a ‘hook-up’, a soulmate or a spouse.
WeChat, China’s most popular multipurpose messaging, social media and mobile payment app, and RedNote (or Xiaohongshu), a very popular Chinese social networking and e-commerce platform, also facilitate dating, for example, via ‘People nearby’, ‘Shake’ and ‘Dating official account and mini programs’.
“Unlike the standalone dating apps of the West, this integrated functionality creates an everyday dating experience for its large number of Chinese users,” A/Prof. Wang says.
“Some offer advice and mentoring from emotion management coaches or mentors – qing’gan jiaolian or daoshi – on how to attract a partner, resolve love confusion, heal emotional wounds and strengthen a couple’s intimacy.”
An appointment with a selected emotion expert on the platform Zhen’ai, for example, costs RMB600 or $US83 US$83. “These love mentoring services are particularly helpful for Chinese young adults who have no dating experience from high school to college due to parental censorship.”
Some businesses target Chinese parents seeking a spouse for their adult children, she says. “This is a reinvention of the longstanding practice of parental matchmaking in China, triggered by the growing number of singles in the new millennium.”
Digital innovations provide new diverse forms of companionship, from AI-powered chatbots and humanoid dolls to romance e-gaming and online dating apps.
While all businesses based around intimacy come with ethical concerns, AI-mediated relationships further blur the boundary between the real and the imagined, she says. “In romance gaming, it’s imagined love, affection and emotions that keep that the relationship going, and many of these gamified options are monetised.
“To deepen their dialogue, users have to pay, and the more involved they become, the less likely they are to form a real relationship.”
These digital technologies provide care alternatives as traditional kinship ties and community support structures change, she says. “They’re filling the gaps left by shrinking families. They are designed to meet the emotional and relational needs of solo dwellers while apps such as Are You Dead? – rebranded as Demumu – address health and safety concerns. “
Demumu users click a button to confirm they’re alive; if they fail to do this, the app alerts their emergency contacts. The app went viral when it was launched in 2025, attracting global media attention and uptake, reflecting the growing demand for non-medical, easy-to-use care networks.
“The emergence of singles-oriented businesses and technologies and safety apps like Demumu is energising China’s solo-driven economy,” says A/Prof. Wang. “They’re reshaping contemporary social relations, expanding single-centred cultures and lifestyles.
“They are creating new spaces for people to connect, new opportunities to express themselves and share affections, but they also risk turning love into a fast-food commodity for mass consumption.”
School of Humanities & Languages
Dr Pan Wang
