ABSTRACT
This chapter illustrates the dating landscape of young Beijing people, the interaction of their personal dating choices with a range of social-cultural discourses and forces, and the power struggles within dating relationships, and between the individual and society as well. In the chapter mapping dating landscapes represents more than an effort to understand how the local context shapes patterns, social stratification, the possibilities for dating; and gender and sexuality discourses in relation to the city. The chapter demonstrates how the hukou system, competition in the neo-liberal market place, differential access to education, rural–urban division and the difference between Beijinger and smalltowner may interact to create opportunities and obstacles for young people's personal choices. The notions of dating landscape and love geography are particularly linked to the cognitive locality of Beijing, which is in a special position, culturally and territorially located between lingering policy-based repression and the increasing 'liberation' brought on by individual practices within the free market atmosphere.
