Constructing love: Relationship maintenance strategies of same-sex couples in China’s institutional void

This study explores how same-sex couples in China build and maintain intimate relationships despite the absence of institutional protection and established social templates. Using reflexive thematic analysis, we conducted in-depth interviews with 22 self-identified gay and lesbian individuals (11 men and 11 women) across 14 Chinese cities. We describe a relationship practice that is not templated, where couples create their own forms of relationships using a mix of partial and competing influences instead of relying on a predefined template. We term this ongoing process “constitutive negotiation.” Five recurring maintenance strategies emerged from the interviews: (1) establishing equality through economic negotiation, (2) creating private rituals in the absence of social scripts, (3) managing growth synchronicity, (4) navigating and redefining sexual intimacy, and (5) balancing a dual life across different social contexts. This work is both demanding and creative, requiring significant labor and vigilance to sustain relationships—efforts that legal recognition could alleviate. Despite these efforts, strain and separation are still common. The findings challenge relationship maintenance theories developed in more recognition-rich Western contexts, highlighting the agency of Chinese same-sex couples while providing a provisional rather than a universal understanding of how such relationships are sustained.