100,000 Chinese Married Online to People They’ve Never Met

The new trend of online marriages in China has been highlighted after a man who, not content with having a real-world wife, married a woman online he had never met in real life. When his non-virtual wife found out she accused him of bigamy and sued him for divorce and psychological injury.

“…Lin found that her husband had got married with a woman two years ago and they had a child together on the Internet. To her surprise, when questioned about this, Zhang replied, “This on-line marriage is not real and it’s impossible for us to meet each other. Just like on-line chatting, I only do this to pass the time. Take it easy.”

Commentators are partly putting the rising trend in online marriages down to its popularity with middle school children. However, Chinese psychologists and sociologists are emphasising the increasing isolation in a society in which most children are only children.
China Daily


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Author: Jeremy Dean

Psychologist, Jeremy Dean, PhD is the founder and author of PsyBlog. He holds a doctorate in psychology from University College London and two other advanced degrees in psychology. He has been writing about scientific research on PsyBlog since 2004. He is also the author of the book "Making Habits, Breaking Habits" (Da Capo, 2013) and several ebooks.