People’s Park, Shanghai China
Want to find a mate in Shanghai, this it seems is one fairly common way to go about it. I ran across this last month while walking through a popular meeting spot in central Shanghai. As a Chinese colleague later explained when I showed him these pictures, each of these pieces of paper, some nicely printed, others hand-written gives the details of a person such as gender, age, height, salary, birthplace, whether they have an apartment (a really big deal here),etc… and also what kind of person they are looking for. Some of the people displaying these are professional matchmakers, others are relatives. Sure they have online dating sites too, but this is the old way and it seems to still have a place here.
Despite there being significantly more young men than women in China, fallout from the one-child policy and the desire of many to make that one child a son, young Chinese women it seems can have a difficult time finding a suitable husband. Some reasons for this are cultural. Some things carry much more importance here than they do in the west. Owning a house is a prime example. As I have been told multiple times by both men and women here, if the young man does not own a house, he stands little chance of finding a girl to marry. “No house - no chance!” as the saying goes, and houses in larger Chinese cities like Shanghai are extremely expensive and few can afford them. It thus falls often on the parents to provide one. It is not uncommon today for parents to buy a house for their adult sons. daughters it seems are out of luck.
One of my Chinese friends recently bought a new home. He is keeping his old apartment though to give to his son so he can one day marry. His son, by the way is now three years old!
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