Mosuo Walking Marriage

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The Mosuo is one of the interesting minority groups in China. One is that they practice Matriarchal system in which women take a leading role in the family and can make some major decision. The other one is the practice of "walking marriage" which meaning that man doesn't get a wife and woman also do not marry to a man, but man can walk to the Huafang of their "partner" at night and return to their own home in the next early morning.

The Walking Bridge of Lugu Lake

The Process of Walking Marriage

Nowadays, there are more than 90% Mosuo people keeping the custom of "walking marriage", and less than 10% choose to marry to the other one in order to continue the family bloodline.

All members of a Mosuo family live in a large Siheyuan wood house, with many generations including great grandmother & her brother, grandmother & her brother, mother & brother, children, aunts, uncle. For the most time, they live in the communal quarters without private bedrooms. However, when a Mosuo girl is 13 years old, she will get a private bedroom called "Huafang" which is used to be the place of the walking marriage.

Traditionally, when a Mosuo girl is interested in a particular man and she will invite him to come and spend the night with her in the Huafang. In the next early morning, the man must leave the Huafang and return his home. At the beginning, such pairing is kept secretly, and call each other "Axiao". Until they find each other congenial and decide to build Axiao relationship, they start to give each other presents like carryon ornaments, bracelet, ring and so on. And then their Axiao relationship is open. But the man can not live with the woman's family and must return to his home.

It is possible for a Mosuo woman to change partners as long as she likes, but in fact she has only one sexual partner at the same period and the relationship will last a long term, ever a life time.

The Huafang of Mosuo Family

The Responsibility of Walking Marriage

When the child is born, he is named after his mother and lives with his mother's family, and his father has little or no responsibility for his offspring. In fact, some children may not even know who their father are. Although the father has no responsibility of bring up his own child, he will bring gifts to the mother's family and give the necessary care in the laboring and living aspects of the mother's family.

In addition, the father has to share responsibility in bringing up all children born within his family, like his sisters' children. Generally speaking, children will grow up with their "aunts" and "uncles", and all members of this large family share the duty of raising the children. After his own children and his sisters' children grow up, they have the responsibility to support him. If a parent dies, they need to go for the funeral.

Mosuo Family

The Results of Walking Marriage

Differing from other marriage systems, one of the results of walking marriage is that the family structure is extremely stable. There is no marrying, so no divorcing. The child belongs to the mother's family and all members have the responsibility to raise the children in the family. In the Mosuo family, the property is never shared in any case, so there is no problem about the distribution of property.

One important result is that there is no particular gender preference. In Mosuo family, the children never leave his own family. Their mother does not worry that they will be not cared by their children when they are in the old age. It is the same for them to give a birth a son or girl. This focus tends to balance the gender. In others, when the girl gets married and she will leave her parents to her husband's family. If the parents just have one female child, they will worry about not being cared in the their old age. Therefore, they have a strong preference for male child.