‘Pieces of a puzzle’: young people in China seek out ‘temporary partners’ with specific interests to avoid complicated traditional relationships
- Novel way of finding companionship sees young people go online to find partners from long list of specialised categories
- From fitness to farming youngsters say temporary partner strategy allows them to solve complicated puzzle relationships present
Young people in China have discovered a new way to find companionship – they engage with “temporary partners”.
Known as da zi in Chinese, which refers to the notion that “everything can be matched”, the novel form of social interaction revolves around the idea of shared interests and has little to do with gender, or even knowing the person before meeting.
Temporary partners come in many guises, and many can be found on the social media platform Xiaohongshu.
Categories of shared interests include food, gaming, fitness, travel or even farming, chatting and music-listening.
A chatting temporary partner is someone who will engage in continuous daily conversations on WeChat.
The unusual farming partner is someone who is enthusiastic about agricultural TV shows and the subject in general.