regardless of gender,the higher the individual's educational attainment,the higher the likelihood of remaining unmarried.For individuals of all educational levels,the increases in this likelihood are larger for women than for men.Two cohorts seem to be least likely to get married older-the least educated men (with primary education)and well-educated women (with postgraduate degrees),and the non-marriage rate is even higher for the former than for the latter in their 40s.Interestingly,the 2010 census points to a "turning point"for the well-educated:even though men in general face higher non-marriage rates of non-marriage than women of most educational levels,women with postgraduate degrees are even less likely to marry after 35 than men of the same level of education and age.In this sense, marriage may not simply be delayed,but may be forgone for post-college educated female singles(Cf.Wu and Liu,2014). [Figure 5] Those changes in marriage patterns also accompany mate selection.They not only are natural consequences of social development,but also reflect the aforementioned gendered dichotomy between the public sphere and private sphere in urban China.Over the decades, apart from delaying marriage,single men and women in urban China also adjusted their criteria for mate selection.Using the survey data of two major cities,Xu(2000)showed that urban young people were paying more attention to the socioeconomic and material circumstances of their potential partners.Later,Li (2008,2011)found that educational homogamy had become more pervasive since the 1980s.While the match between family socioeconomic background apparently becomes less important,the pressure of uncertainty in a market society has pushed marriage searchers to prioritise their future partner's career and financial achievement as well as the potential.These results were reconfirmed by more recent data (Ma,2015;Qi and Niu,2015).Ma's(2015)analysis of the national data shows that more than half Chinese marriages feature husband and wife in similar tiers of education,social8 regardless of gender, the higher the individual’s educational attainment, the higher the likelihood of remaining unmarried. For individuals of all educational levels, the increases in this likelihood are larger for women than for men. Two cohorts seem to be least likely to get married older – the least educated men (with primary education) and well-educated women (with postgraduate degrees), and the non-marriage rate is even higher for the former than for the latter in their 40s. Interestingly, the 2010 census points to a “turning point” for the well-educated: even though men in general face higher non-marriage rates of non-marriage than women of most educational levels, women with postgraduate degrees are even less likely to marry after 35 than men of the same level of education and age. In this sense, marriage may not simply be delayed, but may be forgone for post-college educated female singles (Cf. Wu and Liu, 2014). [Figure 5] Those changes in marriage patterns also accompany mate selection. They not only are natural consequences of social development, but also reflect the aforementioned gendered dichotomy between the public sphere and private sphere in urban China. Over the decades, apart from delaying marriage, single men and women in urban China also adjusted their criteria for mate selection. Using the survey data of two major cities, Xu (2000) showed that urban young people were paying more attention to the socioeconomic and material circumstances of their potential partners. Later, Li (2008, 2011) found that educational homogamy had become more pervasive since the 1980s. While the match between family socioeconomic background apparently becomes less important, the pressure of uncertainty in a market society has pushed marriage searchers to prioritise their future partner’s career and financial achievement as well as the potential. These results were reconfirmed by more recent data (Ma, 2015; Qi and Niu, 2015). Ma’s (2015) analysis of the national data shows that more than half Chinese marriages feature husband and wife in similar tiers of education, social