Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.

My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.

As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices.

What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,

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If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds.

Hello, this is the witness History Podcast from the BBC World Service with me,

Yashanjao. Today we are going back to 2005 when a marriage website for gay men and lesbians was set up in China

to allow them to hide their sexuality from their families and workmates.

Have you got a girlfriend? I want to arrange a blind date for you.

Can you give it to go? My mom was nagging me almost every day to find a girlfriend.

When we got together for family festivals, aunties would grill me about my private life.

They would even offer to set me up with a blind date.

Ling Hei set up what he called his cooperative marriage website in Guangxi when he was 32 and still single in China people are expected to get married soon after

they're age 25. I am gay it was unrealistic to find a random girl to date at that time so it was a dilemma

for me whether to find a girlfriend to keep my family happy or to say no to them.

Traditionally in China, families have a huge impact on people's choice of who to like and

who to marry.

But often the pressure can be overwhelming.

Their worries made me anxious. I even thought about giving in and doing what they wanted,

dating a straight lady and bringing up a baby together.

But I felt that was very immoral and unethical.

...