Multiple uses and anti-purposefulness on Momo, a Chinese dating/social app

Abstract

Momo is becoming a popular mobile platform in China to date, hook up, and engage in social networking. Based on in-depth interviews with 35 dating app users and a survey of 250 current Momo users, I provide a detailed empirical account of the multiple uses of Momo. Momo users used Momo differently, with systematic gender differences and differences among people of various marital statuses. Furthermore, my informants used the notion of mudixing (purposefulness) to describe the direct, overt relationship-seeking practice prevalent on marriage websites, in matching by parents, and among some Momo users. They strongly objected to mudixing and believed Momo having less mudixing. This anti-mudixing may signal push-back against the increasing neoliberalization of Chinese intimacy that foregrounds material calculation and access to more partners. Nonetheless, Momo operates according to market principles. It is, therefore, hard to discern whether Momo is an alternative to the neoliberalization of intimacy in China.

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