Fast facts: Dao chamen

Dao chamen means a man marrying into and living with the bride's family. An ancient traditional Chinese custom, it offers an alternative mode of marriage to the dominant male kinship structure.

In imperial China when parents had no male descendant, they would arrange a marriage for their daughter by calling the husband to come and live with them.

The husband was usually too poor to bring a dowry to the wife's family and so needed to take his wife's surname and perform certain duties as a son.

When the couple had children, the eldest son is assigned to the wife's father's ancestral line and bears his surname.