Baihe, Chinese matchmaking site, criticised for ad telling people to marry to please grandparents

A leading Chinese matchmaking website was blasted by infuriated online users this weekend over its latest commercial that urges young men and women to get married to please their ageing family elders.

Baihe.com’s new television advert, promoting its offline expansion, features an attractive and kind-hearted young woman, who, after years of prodding from her aged grandmother, decides to “stop nit-picking” and seeks to get married to fulfil her elder relative’s wish.

“This year I must get married, even if [doing so] is just for my grandma,” says the young lady, who then seeks the matchmaking service for help. In the final scene and climax of the commercial, the principal actress, wearing a bridal veil and flanked by her groom who she met through the matchmaking service, is seen informing her relieved grandma of the news as she lies on a sickbed in hospital.

The 30-second video clip has apparently enraged many people within China’s online community, where it has been widely shared and commented via various social networking websites.

Watch: Baihe.com's controversial advertisement

Many condemned the ad for “playing the filial piety card” to deliberately exert pressure on youngsters and manipulate them to rush into marriage to please their family elders, as China is a traditional Confucian society where the virtue of respecting one’s parents and ancestors is held up as one of the core values.