Polyandry has been practiced before in China, particularly in impoverished areas, as a way to pool resources and avoid the breakup of property.

Yet much of the online response to Mr. Xie’s proposal has been outrage.

“Is this a human being speaking?” a user with the handle dihuihui wrote on Weibo.

“Trash-talking
professor, many single guys want to ask, ‘Where’s your wife?’ ” a user
who identified as Shanyu jinxiang1887003537 wrote.

Attempts to contact Mr. Xie on Monday were unsuccessful.