How China’s ‘leftover women’ are using their financial power to fight the stigma of being single

Originally published by USC Annenberg on November 15, 2021. Written by Robert Kozinets and Chih-Ling Liu.

In China, if you are female, educated and unmarried by the age of 27, people might use a particular term — “Sheng-nu” — to describe your social status. It translates simply as “leftover women.”

The label was deliberately invented to curb the rising number of single women in a traditional society which sometimes views not marrying as a moral transgression. Some even consider it a threat to national security.

Indeed, portrayals of single women as lonely, desperate, overqualified and intimidating appear regularly in Chinese media and news outlets. Research has shown that the “sheng-nu” stigma has pressurised many women into marriage.

But others are fighting back. 

Partly as a result of the expansion of mass education since the economic reform of the 1980s, women in China appear to be increasingly confident about their place in modern society. 

The 7 million single women aged 25 to 34 in urban China are among the largest contributors to the country’s growth. Women now contribute some 41% to China’s GDP, the largest proportion of any country in the world.

And our research reveals that single professional Chinese women are changing how others see them not through protest or activism — but through their economic power. They are using consumerism to counteract longstanding stigma over their single status.

One 33-year-old woman told us: 

During family gatherings, my aunt just loves to tease my parents about why I’m still single. In her mind, I must lead a miserable life. I need to defend my parents [so] I constantly upgrade my own self-image by buying myself more and more expensive clothes to wear.

She continued: “I want the best of everything in life. My sunglasses are from Burberry, my handbag is from Louis Vuitton, my laptop is from Apple.” 

“I show that I’m not miserable and I lead a great life. [My relatives] can then leave my parents alone.”

And a 30-year-old explained: “The more people want to laugh at you, the more glamorous you need to look in front of them. When you look glamorous, people become more tolerant of you [and your family].”

An IT developer of 35 recalled: “When I bought my mother a golden ring, she was over the moon. My father was very poor when they got married, so she never received a ring from him. I wanted to show both of them that I can afford many, many things.”

The marketplace is also capitalising on the rise of singlehood and its economic muscle. China’s “Singles’ Day”, invented in 2009 by the e-commerce giant Alibaba as a kind of anti-Valentine’s celebration for single people, has overtaken Black Friday to become the biggest annual shopping festival in the world. 

Singles day spending

Held on November 11 every year (the date was chosen because of the four number ones in the date 11.11), 2021 has seen record levels of spending. 

Japanese beauty company SK-II has also seen a growth in sales after it launched a series of popular videos featuring successful professional women who have chosen not to marry.