In case one partner loses the ability to make crucial decisions (i.e. mental or physical illness or accident), his or her guardian may decide for them in their best interest. Their legal relationship can also include wealth and inheritance, or pension, depending on which additional legal documents the couple decides to sign, such as a will.Some notary offices require couples to have lived together for several years or that both partners are out to their families as requirements to sign such an agreement. Chinese LGBT activists have welcomed the move, calling it an "important, positive first step". Peng Yazi, director of LGBT Rights Advocacy China, said after having signed guardianship papers with his partner that "if anything happens to one of us, we know our basic rights are protected". As of August 2019, guardianship agreements have been signed in Jiangsu (the first one was registered in Nanjing in late 2017), Hunan, Sichuan, Guangdong, Shanghai, Hubei and Beijing, among others. The practice is more common among older same-sex couples or couples who have been in a relationship for several years. According to a 2019 online opinion poll on Sina Weibo, which garnered over 5 million responses, 85% of respondents were in favour of the guardianship system, while 5% were opposed; the rest being undecided. Same-sex marriage Background There are documented cases of same-sex unions in Ancient China. During the Song era, there are tales of two men, Pan Zhang and Wang Zhongxian, who fell in love and lived together in a relationship described as "affectionate as husband and wife, sharing the same coverlet and pillow with unbounded intimacy for one another". In modern times, the earliest known advocate for same-sex unions was the 19th to 20th century utopian reformer, Kang Youwei, who advocated temporary marriage contracts lasting up for a year. These contracts would be open to same-sex couples as well as to heterosexual couples. However, he did not believe that China was ready for such a historic step, and deferred this policy until the future Great Unity. On 13 January 2010, the China Daily published a front-page splash photo of a Chinese couple, Zeng Anquan, a divorced architect aged 45, and Pan Wenjie, a demobilized People's Liberation Army soldier aged 27, being married in a gay bar in Chengdu. The marriage is understood as having no legal basis in the country, and the families of both men reacted negatively to