Bare Branches & Leftover women: Nanjing Marriage Market
This project was originally inspired by my experience of being pushed by my parents to get married. In China, marriage markets have been set up in many cities, and they have become popular in the last two decades. Parents here usually have specific criteria for choosing a spouse, such as age, height, household registration, income, education, etc. In this market, unmarried children are quantified into specific numbers by which parents can compare and select them. Unmarried young people are priced, advertised, and sold like commodities. I felt bitter about this practice, so I had the idea to satirize this social phenomenon visually.
I researched in the Nanjing marriage market, taking photos and interviewing different groups of people, including parents, unmarried children, and marriage agents, and organized the content into different chapters according to participants’ identities.
