In Chinese community, one-night stands are getting old
Zhaba (China): Nimble after years of practice, Trinley Norbu is used to hoisting himself three stories up the side of a stone house and through the window for a one-night stand in his southwest China community.
While other young men squire their love interests to dinner or a movie, Norbu has honed his climbing skills, long the key to successful courtship for men in the small matrilineal Zhaba ethnic group of Sichuan province.
The Zhaba eschew monogamous relationships for traditional “walking marriages” — so-called since men typically walk to their rendezvous before slipping through their lover’s window.
But the 37-year-old truck driver and others in the remote area on the edge of the Tibetan plateau lament that the tradition is waning, as women increasingly want a bit more commitment from a man.
The arrival of the internet, smartphones, live streaming and popular Korean TV shows, along with improved transportation and education opportunities beyond the valley, have exposed the once isolated Zhaba to other lifestyles.
“Now the women especially have begun to want the same things as outsiders — fixed marriages, and financial assets such as a house or car,” he said.
But an even more dramatic challenge looms on the horizon: one of the world’s tallest dams will soon flood the valley, forcing villagers to scatter as they relocate from ancestral homes. “It’s heartbreaking. They’ve turned our area upside down, and we don’t have any say in it,” said Trinley Norbu, who is temporarily employed by construction site. His friend Khando Tsering stared up at the towering, unfinished support pillars of a highway that will soon halve travel times to the nearest city.