Department of Clinical Psychology, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China.
Department of Anthropology, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Chattanooga, TN, USA.
Fam Process. 2021 Dec;60(4):1347-1363. doi: 10.1111/famp.12626. Epub 2021 Jan 6.
A marriage of convenience has been defined as a reciprocal relationship between a gay man and a lesbian that provides a way to cope with social, cultural, family, and political stress, but this definition may be oversimplified in explaining this type of reciprocal relationship in a guanxi (the system of social networks and influential relationships that facilitate business and other dealings) society such as China. Such relationships are undergoing a process of development and change rather than remaining stable in Chinese guanxi society. This paper explores the nature and process of the development of marriages of convenience between gay men and lesbians in China. The data were collected and analyzed according to the grounded theory method. A theoretical sampling strategy was employed, and a sample of 15 people involved in so-called marriages of convenience was recruited from gay and lesbian communities in China. In our research, we found that the marriage relationships documented in this study included four stages: (1) men dang hu dui (being matched for marriage), (2) partnership, (3) friendship, and (4) kinship. Building a suitable relationship in a marriage of convenience can help gay men and lesbians meet social expectations while simultaneously retaining a degree of autonomy for their own homosexual identities. Maintaining and developing guanxi is a basic method of conflict resolution in Chinese society. Meanwhile, the ambiguity of the relationship within a marriage of convenience may cause conflict in these marriages. Treatment modalities are recommended to reorganize the system structuring these marriages and clarify ambiguous family boundaries by redefining who is in the family unit and his and her associated roles and responsibilities in the marriage of convenience. We conclude that more research is warranted to investigate how family therapy can be adapted for Chinese gay and lesbian individuals.
在中国这样的关系（社会网络和有影响力的关系系统，促进商业和其他交易）社会中，这种关系正在经历发展和变化的过程，而不是在保持稳定。本文探讨了中国同性恋者之间的便利婚姻的性质和发展过程。数据是根据扎根理论方法收集和分析的。采用理论抽样策略，从中国的同性恋社区招募了 15 名参与所谓便利婚姻的人作为样本。在我们的研究中，我们发现本研究记录的婚姻关系包括四个阶段：（1）men dang hu dui（匹配婚姻），（2）伙伴关系，（3）友谊，和（4）亲属关系。在便利婚姻中建立合适的关系可以帮助同性恋者满足社会期望，同时保持自己同性恋身份的一定自主权。维持和发展关系是中国社会解决冲突的基本方法。同时，便利婚姻中关系的模糊性可能会导致这些婚姻中的冲突。建议采用治疗模式来重组构建这些婚姻的系统结构，并通过重新定义家庭单位中的人以及他或她在便利婚姻中的相关角色和责任来澄清模糊的家庭界限。我们得出结论，需要进行更多的研究来调查家庭治疗如何适应中国的同性恋个体。
