Internet makes it easier for people in China to have affairs: expert
Staff Reporter 2015-09-14 09:16
Perhaps they're married. Or perhaps they're Ashley Madison members. (Photo/CFP)
Canada-based website Ashley Madison, which touts itself as a service for members to arrange discreet extramarital affairs, was hacked last month, causing the leak of confidential data on its members. The exposed data shows there is a correlation between the number of the Chinese members in a city and its degree of economic development, according to a report in the state-run Reference News.
Li Yinhe, a research fellow at the Institute of Sociology under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the emergence of modern information technology and internet network platforms has provided an opportunity for extramarital affairs to prosper and the number of people having affairs has risen accordingly.
After combing through the leaked Ashley Madison data, the Guangzhou Daily found that the dating website has just over 100,000 members from China, with most of them, 8,953, registered in Shanghai, followed by Guangzhou with 5,622 members and Shenzhen with 5,217.
The figures triggered heated debate among internet users in the country, some of whom concluded that economic prosperity is an important factor promoting the growth of extramarital affairs.
Li said the biggest thing to come out of the Ashley Madison hack is the revelation that China's traditional marriage values are declining.
The results of a random sample survey Li conducted in Beijing in 1989 stated that 6.4% of those surveyed admitted to having extramarital affairs. In a joint research report between Renmin University of China and the University of Chicago, published in 2012, the percentage of Chinese men having extramarital affairs reached 13.6%, while that of Chinese women was 4.2%.
Modern information technology and online platforms facilitate the ability of two strangers to communicate with each other and give people more opportunities to form romantic attachments outside of marriage, Li said.
Li said he believes the number of extramarital affairs will continue to stay at a relatively high level among the Chinese populace.
