Since the mid-2000s, China’s street parks have become new tourist attractions and popular venues for marriage matchmaking. Organised by parent volunteers attempting to find a partner for their children, these “marriage matchmaking corners” or xiangqinjiao are seen in cities across China.

Many of the parents grew up in the Maoist era (1949–76) in which they hardly experienced romance or dating due to the political nature of the period. Their children, on the other hand, were born mainly in the opening-up period of the 1980s and ’90s.