Video | Dating in China: apps, speed dates, and parents in parks scouring singles’ profiles for a match for their children
Finding a mate is a serious business for China’s single men and women, all the more so when Chinese New Year is looming. Some use speed dating, others apps to which they may pay thousands; their parents resort to an old-fashioned way of seeking a match
Millions of Chinese are heading home this week for the Lunar New Year holiday, a time that should be among the happiest for people across the country; however, for those who remain single, parental expectations can make it a stressful one.
The West will be celebrating Valentine’s Day on Wednesday with flowers and chocolate, but love and dating is a far more serious business – in every sense of the word – in China. With only a short time left before the holidays, there is no time to waste.
Wanted: fake partner to impress family at Hong Kong Lunar New Year gatherings
Li Jian, a 29-year-old bank manager, was among the 32 single men and women gathered at a nondescript cafe in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen for a recent speed-dating event hosted by a local company called Little Dates.
Li has precisely eight minutes to check out each potential mate, and is optimistic that, by the end of the four-hour exercise, he will walk away with one.
“When my grandmother passed away last year, I failed to fulfil her dying wish of bringing a girlfriend home,” says Li. So now that his maternal grandmother is in her nineties, he is making a more serious effort.
Likewise, 36-year-old engineer Yu, who does not want to reveal his full name, says family pressure to get married is so intense that returning home for the upcoming holidays is a difficult proposition.