Looking for Love in China

When it comes to love, it turns out people in China are just like us! They sometimes have trouble finding “the one”! But that doesn’t stop their parents from pressuring them to get married or judging them harshly if they don’t.

“Chinese parents commonly expect their sons or daughters to be married by the time they’re 30. There is even a word for those who are ‘left on the shelf’ in their thirties: shengnan and shengnv, literally a ‘left-over man’ or ‘left-over woman.’”

Poor left-over people! But it’s not really their fault because they work all the time and have trouble meeting people. So more and more they’re turning to online dating — just like we do. See all people everywhere are the same; the world is really all just one giant Match.com. And no one anywhere is anything like their profile promises. As Power Li, a 32-year-old single Chinese man, explains:

“It’s the accuracy of the photos compared to real thing that’s the biggest problem. You see a girl on the website who you quite like the look of, but then when you ask her out you find they look nothing like their online photos.”

No kidding. Anyway, that’s all very interesting, but here’s something else I just noticed.

“China currently has 180 million bachelors, up to half of whom are thought to be looking for love online. And after three decades of the ‘one child policy’, a societial bias towards male progenies has meant that for every 100 females there are 119.45 males, an imbalance that is driving competition for partners among males. According to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, by 2020 there will be 24 million more men of marriage age than women.”

Umm, how do you like them odds, American women who complain that there aren’t enough single guys around here? Perhaps China’s “leftovers” are fixing to be their greatest natural resource? Hold on, I am just going to go on eBay and buy a plane and start organizing trans-continental matchmaking vacations, brb.

Picture via Flickr