This summer, "The Leftover Monologues" play began to tour around China, bringing issues of love, marriage, relationships, and life for single women to the forefront.

The play was in part inspired by the prevailing concept that unmarried women over the age of 27 are to be labeled with the moniker of "Sheng-nu", meaning "leftover woman" in English.  

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Roseann Lake, a Beijing-based American journalist has interviewed over 100 women to collect material for an upcoming book on the rising phenomenon of single women remaining unmarried well into their 20s, 30s and beyond.

Many women revealed to the author that there is a stigma attached to being an unmarried woman in a large city with a cat and no husband.

Several of the women Lake interviewed noted that they have worked hard to earn a good education and job and do not see marriage as a benefit to their lives.

Lake's work also inspired her to write, "The Leftover Monologues", a theater production which uses humor to portray many of the women's sentiments of frustration, fear, and sadness.

In late July, women across Beijing were treated to a performance of the show and the play has become a big hit, especially with urban Chinese women.

Performances at universities in Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Changsha have been popular among women of all ages who have grown accustomed to hearing the phrase "leftover woman."

In 2007, many Chinese women were in an uproar when the Chinese Ministry of Education published a list of new words which had entered the nation's vocabulary. Among the list of words was the phrase for "leftover woman."

Chinese women fought back against the phrase citing that as women become more and more educated they set higher standards for the men they want to marry, which sometimes results in difficulties finding a partner.

Tagsleftover monologues, marriage in china, china's unmarried women, sheng-nu, leftover women, leftover woman, roseann lake