Women seeking a man

Among them was Ruby, a former businesswoman in her mid-40s who had received a generous divorce settlement from her wealthy Chinese ex-husband and had retired in leisure. To save up, he often ate just a few dumplings for dinner, sometimes skipping the meal altogether.Īcross the ocean, several Chinese women had gathered at their local dating agency, waiting to speak with their translator. Robert told me he had become frustrated with American women, whom he felt were overly materialistic and had lost their “traditional family values.” (To protect the identities of my interviewees, I’ve used pseudonyms.) Yet Robert could barely afford to travel to China to meet the women with whom he exchanged emails.

After divorcing his wife, who had cheated on him, he joined an online dating agency that connected Western men with Chinese women through translator-assisted email exchanges.

Robert, an American truck driver in his 50s, lived in a trailer park in the Deep South.