Chinese Matchmaking Interview Corpus
Project description
This dataset accompanies the study “A Corpus-assisted Critical Discourse Analysis on Gendered Roles in Chinese Matchmaking Interviews”. The broader research examines how gendered partner expectations in contemporary Chinese matchmaking are discursively constructed, justified, and normalized.
In recent decades, rapid social transformation in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has reshaped education, employment, and family structures. However, gendered expectations surrounding marriage remain influential. Attributes such as age, income, education, reproductive plans, and family background continue to structure evaluations of partner desirability, particularly within online matchmaking contexts. While previous corpus-based research has identified systematic gender asymmetries in matchmaking advertisements, less attention has been paid to how individuals interpret and rationalize these expectations in everyday discourse.
The present study integrates large-scale questionnaire data (n=3,032) with semi-structured interviews (n=23) to investigate how gendered partner criteria are articulated and negotiated. The questionnaire establishes broader patterns of acceptance and gender differentiation in partner requirements. The interview data being the core of this dataset, provide qualitative insight into how participants frame, justify, or normalize such expectations through evaluative language, moral reasoning, and appeals to compatibility.
The analytical framework combines Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis (FCDA), drawing particularly on Fairclough’s three-dimensional model and Lazar’s gender-focused extension. Interview discourse is treated as a form of social practice in which gender ideology is reproduced and occasionally contested. Special attention is given to discursive strategies such as normalization, moralization, compatibility framing, and externalization of responsibility.
By making the anonymized interview transcripts publicly available, this dataset enhances transparency and allows readers to examine the empirical basis of the discourse analysis. The data support claims regarding the discursive construction of gendered desirability, moralized reproductive responsibility, and the naturalization of unequal relational roles in contemporary Chinese matchmaking practices.
In recent decades, rapid social transformation in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has reshaped education, employment, and family structures. However, gendered expectations surrounding marriage remain influential. Attributes such as age, income, education, reproductive plans, and family background continue to structure evaluations of partner desirability, particularly within online matchmaking contexts. While previous corpus-based research has identified systematic gender asymmetries in matchmaking advertisements, less attention has been paid to how individuals interpret and rationalize these expectations in everyday discourse.
The present study integrates large-scale questionnaire data (n=3,032) with semi-structured interviews (n=23) to investigate how gendered partner criteria are articulated and negotiated. The questionnaire establishes broader patterns of acceptance and gender differentiation in partner requirements. The interview data being the core of this dataset, provide qualitative insight into how participants frame, justify, or normalize such expectations through evaluative language, moral reasoning, and appeals to compatibility.
The analytical framework combines Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis (FCDA), drawing particularly on Fairclough’s three-dimensional model and Lazar’s gender-focused extension. Interview discourse is treated as a form of social practice in which gender ideology is reproduced and occasionally contested. Special attention is given to discursive strategies such as normalization, moralization, compatibility framing, and externalization of responsibility.
By making the anonymized interview transcripts publicly available, this dataset enhances transparency and allows readers to examine the empirical basis of the discourse analysis. The data support claims regarding the discursive construction of gendered desirability, moralized reproductive responsibility, and the naturalization of unequal relational roles in contemporary Chinese matchmaking practices.
Data Availability
Open
Contact Person
Author(s)
Lu, Nan |
Organization(s)
Languages
zh
Subjects
Chinese matchmaking
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interview discourse
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Neo-Confucianism
Rights URI