For Xia Dong, the greatest difficulty of being gay was not coming out to his parents, but marrying a girl who can continue the family line.
The 25-year-old is on his third same-sex relationship.
The first two partners were both married to women, and Xia felt very depressed when his current partner, Xun, also brought up the idea of marrying as a cover for their relationship.
But this time, the prospective bride was a lesbian.
Xun persuaded Xia to have a sham marriage to appease his conservative parents.
Their story echoes director Ang Lee's Golden Bear-winning film, The Wedding Banquet, which tells how a Taiwanese gay man marries a mainland Chinese woman in the United States to pander to his parents'demand for a grandchild.
In China, despite rising tolerance of homosexuality, it is still taboo in conventional circles and gay marriage is still illegal.
Traditional-minded parents expect their sons and daughters to produce heirs. This has become an obligation in a society of mostly of single-child families. As a result, sham marriages are on the rise.
0 PARENTAL OBLIGATIONS
Xun was born 26 years ago in a rural family in east China. His parents were fined under the "one-child" policy as they already had a daughter.
Xun found at a very young age that he shared many interests with his elder sister and other girls. He felt "excited" when he saw handsome guys on TV.
As he grew older, he realized he was gay. Xun told his sister who warned him not tell their parents and urged him to marry and have a baby.
His parents still have no inkling of their son's sexuality. They are arranging a wedding for him, unaware that their son and "daughter-in-law" will live separate lives with their same-sex lovers after the ceremony.
Xun says he will keep the secret and only meet his "wife" on occasions like family gatherings, particularly with the older generations.
However, Xia came out as gay, but his parents, after study and consultation, insisted on urging him to marry to continue the family line.
"My parents care more about the family reputation than their son's feelings," says Xia. "They just want me to have a child."
Xia had considered other methods, such as surrogacy, which is still banned in China. He thought about adoption, but his parents objected to a grandchild with no blood relationship.
Unwilling to openly disobey his parents, he thinks a sham marriage is the only option.
