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| After she signed the contract for her new apartment in southern China, Guo Miaomiao, 32, ran through the mental list of what she would get to enjoy as a homeowner. A leather couch in the living room. A pumpkin pendant lamp that she’d been eyeing online. | 32岁的郭淼淼（音）在中国南方买了新房，签完合同后，她在脑海中过了一遍作为房主将享受到的一切。客厅里有一张真皮沙发，天花板上挂着她在网上看中很久的南瓜色吊灯。 |
| And, most important, a way to defy expectations in China about the role that a woman should play in a marriage. | 而最重要的是，她以这种方式打破了中国人对女性在婚姻中所扮演角色的期望。 |
| “I’ve seen too many cases, including among my relatives and friends, where the husband buys the house, and the minute the couple argues, the husband tells her to get out,” said Ms. Guo, who works at a technology company in the city of Guangzhou. “This gives me confidence that if I do get married, I won’t be afraid of anything. Even if I leave him, I can live independently.” | “我见过太多这样的例子，包括亲戚朋友之间，丈夫买了房子，只要夫妻一吵架，丈夫就让她滚出去，”在广州一家科技公司工作的郭淼淼说。“买房让我相信，就算我结婚了也什么都不怕。就算离开他，我也能独立生活。” |
| Ms. Guo is one of a growing number of unmarried Chinese women buying property — a trend that strikes at one of Chinese society’s most deeply rooted gender norms. For centuries, men, no matter their income level, have been expected to own a home to be eligible for marriage. For married women, in turn, the home of their husband effectively becomes their only one, as they are no longer considered part of their birth families, or as a Chinese saying puts it: “A married daughter is like water splashed away.” | 郭淼淼属于越来越多未婚买房的中国女性群体——这一趋势冲击了中国社会最根深蒂固的性别规范。几个世纪以来，无论收入水平如何，男性要有房才有资格结婚。对于已婚女性来说，丈夫的家实际上成了她们唯一的家，因为她们不再被视为原生家庭的一部分，正如中国的一句俗话：“嫁出去的女儿泼出去的水”。 |
| Now, more Chinese women are demanding homes of their own. | 现在，越来越多的中国女性想要拥有自己的房子。 |
| A recent survey by China Youth Daily, a state-run newspaper, found that nearly 94 percent of respondents approved of single women buying property, with two-thirds saying it signaled a desire for gender equality. While official statistics on the actual rate of homeownership are limited, one government survey in 2020 found that the percentage of unmarried women who owned property had risen to 10.3 percent from 6.9 percent a decade earlier. And the numerical bump was even greater, as the number of single women aged 25 and older had grown by nearly 10 million during the same period. | 官方报纸《中国青年报》最近的一项调查发现，近94%的受访者赞成单身女性购买房产，三分之二的人表示这表明了对性别平等的渴望。尽管有关实际住房拥有率的官方统计数据有限，但2020年的一项政府调查发现，未婚女性拥有房产的比例已从十年前的6.9%上升至10.3%，而由于25岁及以上的单身女性人数同期增加了近1000万，实际数字更高。 |
| The increase in female buyers is coinciding with intense turmoil in China’s housing sector. Many big and small developers have run out of money and left apartments unfinished, driving away prospective customers. Buyers like Ms. Guo saw an opportunity: She took advantage of the drop in housing prices and mortgage rates to buy a finished, and partly furnished, two-bedroom unit. | 女性购房者增多，恰逢中国房市遭遇剧烈动荡。许多大大小小的开发商资金耗尽，公寓无法完工，失去了潜在客户。像郭淼淼这样的买家看到了机会：她利用房价和贷款利率下降的机会，购买了一套包含部分家具的两居室现房。 |
| On Chinese social media, property agents have begun targeting single women, posting promotional videos with hashtags like “a little house suitable for single ladies.” | 在中国的社交媒体上，房地产经纪人已经开始将单身女性作为目标客户，发布的视频带有“适合单身女士的小房子”等标签。 |
| “It’s an awakening toward the rights of women,” said Wang Mengqi, an assistant professor of anthropology at Duke Kunshan University in Suzhou who has studied the property purchasing patterns of young Chinese. The shift is part of growing attention to women’s rights more generally. Though the Chinese government, as part of its larger crackdown on civil society, has tried to suppress feminist activists and organizations, topics such as the #MeToo movement and the lack of domestic violence protections have frequently topped social media discussions in recent years. Concerns about a slowing economy and an emerging preference for an independent lifestyle have also led many young Chinese to reject marriage altogether, with the number of marriage registrations in 2022 dropping to a record low of 6.8 million. | “这是对女性权利的觉醒，”苏州昆山杜克大学人类学助理教授王梦琪说，她研究中国年轻人的购房模式。这一转变是人们对女性权利普遍关注的一部分。在中国政府对公民社会的镇压中，对女权活动人士和女权组织的压制是其中的一部分，但#MeToo运动、缺乏家暴保护等话题近年来不时成为社交媒体讨论的焦点。对经济放缓感到担忧、独立生活方式日益受到欢迎等因素也导致许多中国年轻人干脆不结婚，2022年结婚登记人数为680万，降至历史新低。 |
| Ms. Guo, the home buyer in Guangzhou, developed an insecurity around housing from an early age. Growing up in a big family with eight siblings in a conservative area of Guangdong Province, it became clear, from things her relatives and friends said, that once married, she wouldn’t be able to live in her parents’ home anymore. | 广州购房者郭淼淼在住房问题上的不安全感从小就有。她在广东一个传统地区长大，家里有八个兄弟姐妹，她可以从亲戚朋友的话中听出来，一旦结婚，她就不能再住在父母家里了。 |
| Ms. Guo, who described herself as naturally rebellious, resolved early on to buy herself a home. After graduating from college, she worked in several big cities across China, chasing increasingly ambitious job opportunities. In the last five years, she saved $70,000. And in March, she turned her dream into reality. | 自称天生叛逆的郭淼淼很早就决定给自己买一套房子。大学毕业后，她在中国的几个大城市工作过，寻求越来越有前途的工作职位。过去五年里，她存了约50万元。今年3月，她将梦想变成了现实。 |
| “I want to prove to everyone that women are not limited to the only option of marriage. I could have many other choices,” Ms. Guo said. | “我想向所有人证明，女性并不只有婚姻这一个选项。我可以有很多其他选择，”郭淼淼说。 |
| Alongside changing attitudes, practical changes such as rising incomes have also helped increase the rate of single female homeownership. In 2021, the number of Chinese women receiving college education overtook the number of men, according to official statistics. And the number of female workers in urban areas is up by nearly 40 percent compared with a decade ago. | 除了观念的改变，收入增加等现实变化也有助于提高单身女性的住房拥有率。据官方统计，2021年，中国接受大学教育的女性人数超过男性。与10年前相比，城市女性劳动力数量增加了近40%。 |
| Legal developments have also made wives more aware of the financial risks of living in homes their husbands own. Until 2011, divorce courts treated family homes as joint property. But as both property prices and divorce rates soared, China’s supreme court ruled that property acquired before marriage belonged only to the person who had either made the down payment or bought the property outright — leaving many divorced women essentially homeless, even if they had contributed to mortgage payments. | 法律的变动也使妻子们更加意识到，住在丈夫名下的房产存在财务风险。2011年之前，离婚法庭将家庭住宅视为共同财产。但随着房价和离婚率飙升，中国最高法院裁定，婚前获得的财产只属于付首付或全款买房的一方——这使得许多离婚女性没有房产，即使贡献了住房贷款。 |
| That change helped Zhang Ye, a 27-year-old accountant in the western city of Xi’an, persuade her parents to help her buy an apartment. She would have to help a future husband make mortgage payments anyway, she argued, so her own property would be a savvier — and safer — financial investment. | 法律上的变化让住在西安的27岁会计师张野（音）说服父母帮助她买一套房。她认为，无论如何，她都不得不帮未来的丈夫支付贷款，所以她自己拥有的财产将是一个更明智、更安全的财务投资。 |
| “Otherwise, after I get married, I pay the mortgage with my husband, but still don’t own the place,” she said. | “否则，我结婚后，我会和丈夫一起支付贷款，但仍然没有房子，”她说。 |
| Ms. Zhang’s parents agreed and paid most of the down payment for a riverside apartment that had had one previous owner. | 张野的父母同意了，并支付了一套临河二手房公寓的大部分首付。 |
| In Changsha, a city in southern China, women made up more than half of the people who bought homes through Beike Zhaofang, one of the country’s biggest online property agencies, the company said. The women either bought the homes on their own or invested in them with partners, according to Beike, which said Changsha was the city with the highest percentage of female buyers, based on transactions on its platform. | 中国最大的在线房产中介之一贝壳找房表示，在中国南方城市长沙，通过该公司购房的人有一半以上是女性。贝壳称，这些女性要么自己买房，要么与伴侣一起投资购买。根据贝壳平台上的交易情况，长沙是女性购房者比例最高的城市。 |
| The recent trend is still far from overturning the longstanding gender imbalance in property ownership. In 2018, the rate of property ownership among all urban female residents was only half that of male residents, according to a study by Peking University. The gap is even starker in rural areas. | 最近的趋势还远未扭转财产所有权性别失衡的长期问题。北京大学的一项研究显示，2018年，全部城镇女性居民的房产拥有率仅为男性居民的一半。在农村地区，这一差距更为明显。 |
| By contrast, it is common for financially struggling families to help sons buy property — even taking on debt if needed — because of the perception that it is a prerequisite for marriage. | 相比之下，经济拮据的家庭通常会帮助儿子购买房产——甚至在需要时举债——因为人们认为这是结婚的先决条件。 |
| Tyler Wu, a Changsha property agent, said that many of the young female buyers he has encountered have opted for smaller condominiums or previously owned apartments. | 长沙房产经纪人泰勒·吴（音）表示，他遇到的许多年轻女性买家都选择了较小的公寓或二手房。 |
| Traditional expectations can dissuade prospective buyers in other ways, too. On social media, women have shared that men they have been set up with through matchmaking services have become less interested in them upon learning that they already own property. | 传统的预期也会以其他方式劝退潜在买家。在社交媒体上，女性们表示，通过婚介服务认识的男性在得知她们已经拥有财产后，对她们的兴趣降低了。 |
| Ms. Zhang’s boyfriend of five years objected when she told him she had decided to buy a property. He worried that it would take away from her ability to help pay his mortgage after they married, she said. But Ms. Zhang ignored him. | 当张野告诉男友自己决定买房时，交往了五年的男友表示反对。她说，他担心这会削弱她在结婚后帮他支付抵押贷款的能力。但张野没有理会。 |
| “I didn’t bother to try and persuade him,” she said. “Ever since I was a child, whatever decision I make, I stick to it.” | “我没有费心去说服他，”她说。“从小到大，无论做什么决定，我都会坚持下去。” |
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