67 © Springer International Publishing AG 2018 S. Srinivasan, S. Li (eds.), Scarce Women and Surplus Men in China and India, Demographic Transformation and Socio-Economic Development 8, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-63275-9_4 Chapter 4 ‘Who Said I Was a Forced Bachelor?’ Single Men’s Voices and Strategies in Rural China Kun Zhang and Danièle Bélanger 4.1 Introduction The period 1980–2005 resulted in a new demographic structure with an unequal number of young men and women in China and India (Guilmoto 2010, 2009; Attané 2006). The year 2000 marked a turning point because the irst cohorts of young men born in the sex-selection era (since 1980) reached adulthood (20–30 years of age) (Poston and Zhang 2009). For China, estimates of ‘surplus men’ who will not be able to ind a wife vary between 27 and 30 million for men born between 1985 and 2005. For some provinces, up to 20% of men aged 30–39 years will be single around 2030, with proportions climbing to 50% by 2050 (Das Gupta 2010; Das Gupta et al. 2009). Based on qualitative ieldwork 1 conducted in 2012 in two rural communities in Shannxi and Jiangsu provinces of China, the chapter examines single men’s agency in dealing with the dificulty in marrying. In doing so it addresses many of the short- comings of the current negative narrative on single men in China. Section 4.2 reviews scholarship on Chinese rural single men who encounter dificulties to marry, and provides context on the rural marriage market and its linked lows of labour migration. Section 4.3 then discusses the use of qualitative methods includ- ing the rationale of ieldwork location, interviews with research participants, and data analysis method. Section 4.4 elaborates on mate selection criteria of semi- arranged matchmaking and how it is featuring the current rural marriage market. In 1 Fieldwork was carried out in the same locations as for the study presented in Chap. 3. Both stud- ies were part of the same research project. K. Zhang (*) The Metrick System, Toronto, ON, Canada M6B 3W7 e-mail: shimonlyzk@gmail.com D. Bélanger Université Laval, Quebec City, QC, Canada e-mail: daniele.belanger@ggr.ulaval.ca