The wealthy single Chinese women choosing white sperm donors to have a baby – they want a family but not a Chinese husband
- Most unmarried women in China are unable to access fertility treatment and sperm banks at home
- Successful women who don’t wish to marry turn instead to Western sperm donors, picking them from catalogues before going overseas for IVF treatment
Looking at page after page of childhood photos, Xiaogunzhu was drawn to an image of a French-Irish boy with smiling dark blue eyes. But she was not admiring her lover’s family album, she was browsing a catalogue of potential sperm donors – the 39-year-old is one of an increasing number of affluent single women in China seeking a child, but not a husband.
Unmarried women in China are largely barred from accessing sperm banks and in vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment, forcing them to seek options abroad.
Her choice made – donor #14471 on the website of a Californian sperm bank – Xiaogunzhu flew to the United States to begin the first rounds of treatment.
“There are many women who won’t get married, so they might not fulfil this fundamental biological mission,” Xiaogunzhu said, using the name she blogs under to avoid any negative attention, “but I felt another path had opened up”.
Her baby, now nine months old, is called Oscar after a character in a comic about the French Revolution – a nod to the donor’s French ancestry.
