Looking for love? Male sojourners’ search for marriage partners in 19th Century Hong Kong

Whereas much has been written about “left behind” wives during the Chinese diaspora of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, relatively less is known about the lives of single sojourning men from the Chinese mainland during this period. Drawing on archives from the Po Leung Kuk, an organization that conducted a matchmaking service, we analyze a sample of 1328 applications by male sojourners seeking marriage partners in Hong Kong. Using both quantitative and qualitative data, we ask: under what circumstances did these men seek marriage partners in Hong Kong? In what social networks were they embedded. What were their expectations of married life? What determined whether these matches would be successful?