YOUTH
18 | Wednesday, August 7, 2019
CHINA DAILY | CHINADAILY.COM.CN/LIFEcan also hang out at any of these cafe-
styled places, where people can freely
communicate and socialize.
The other choices are 3,000 yuan
for a year’s service, 2,000 yuan for
half a year and 1,500 yuan for three
months, according to Wang, but he
chose the most expensive option.
“I came here searching for my life-
long partner but I realize that finding
Ms Right is a process that requires
patience. So, I chose the option with-
out a time limit and visit the meeting
places as often as I can,” explains
Wang.
He may have little chance of meet-
ing many women in life or work,
Wang confesses, but he’d like to talk
to more women rather than idle
away the weekends at home.
He has spent almost every week-
end over the past two months at the
Maisui Danshen Gongshe venues and
also had his information published
on its website. However, offline activi-
ties, such as talking face-to-face or
attending events with other people,
are his priority.
“I made nine new female friends
on WeChat in two months. Maybe
none of them is the one I am looking
for, but at least I broadened my circle
of friends,” says Wang.
“A friend of mine in Beijing met her
husband during her annual leave in
Paris two years ago. Her future hus-
band was a student in London. You
never know where or when the right
person will appear for you,” he says.
“Maybe your other half is nearby,
just around the corner, or far away on
the road in front of you. All in all, I
believe that going out to socialize and
actively looking for my Ms Right is
the best approach.”Contact the writer at
[email protected]T
he forecast is for clear days
ahead but tonight could see
a quickening of the pulse
and send hearts aflutter.
Romance is in the air as China’s own
Valentine’s Day — Qixi Festival, the
seventh day of the seventh lunar
month on the lunar calendar — falls
today. And for many, the stars will
shine brighter tonight.
An Na and her husband will cele-
brate their second month of mar-
riage by “cooking a big dinner”.
When An, an internet company
worker in Shanghai, received a love
letter from her groom at their wed-
ding ceremony on June 7, the
29-year-old’s eyes welled up. After
dating for two years she was finally
marrying her true love.
Sometimes romance needs a help-
ing hand and in an age when tech-
nology plays such a vital part in all
our lives, it should be no surprise
that it can help with affairs of the
heart.
Her matchmaker was a WeChat
account called Moshang Huakai.
She discovered the platform in
2016 when one of her friends placed
a post on the matchmaking account.
The post was a detailed self-intro-
duction of around 1,600 words,
which included basic information
on her education, family back-
ground, hobbies and friends’ com-
ments, as well as her expectations of
her future boyfriend. Photos were
also included in the post.
A questionnaire appeared at the
end of the post. Anyone who wanted
to contact her friend would have to
fill it out before her friend decided
whether or not to respond.
The post made a deep impression
on An, especially when she realized
that it was viewed by more than
3,000 people.
“It seemed that all the people with
matchmaking posts on the platform
were well-educated and as a woman
with a postgraduate diploma, I want-
ed any future husband to have a diplo-
ma equivalent to mine,” An recalls.
She was not shy and was “willing to
tell people I am single and looking for
a relationship”. “It was great to have a
platform that could help me make
my circumstances known to more
people,” says An.
An wrote a self-introduction and
posted it on the platform in March
- The post garnered about 4,
views with 30 responses and inquir-
ies.
“Most of the men who responded”
were in the category she was looking
for, An recalls.
“I wrote in the post that I enjoy
travel and have visited more than 20
countries during my postgraduate
years. People who asked for my con-
tact number generally shared my
interests.’’
The detailed information An post-
ed on the platform did help her filter
out some respondents.
And then, the magic of romance
took over. “I met my boyfriend four
months later. He was my future Mr
Right.”
Over the past two years, she and
her husband-to-be traveled to a num-
ber of cities, including Taipei, Hong
Kong and Macao.
On every trip they got to know
each other better and they soon
decided to tie the knot.
The Moshang Huakai platform
has more than 150,000 followers,
according to its female founders, Ma
Yueliang and Long Lele, both 27.
Each post generates feedback from
around 30 people on average.
They set up the platform after col-
lege when they realized that a lot of
people they met, both men and wom-
en, were looking for life partners.
“We asked people to introduce
themselves and detail their back-
grounds and expectations as clearly
as possible. Similar backgrounds
mean people will have things in
common and will help filter out the
ones you are not that into,” says
Long, who works in hotel manage-
ment. She knows that the platform
she helped create is effective, after
all, because she met her husband
through it.
Co-founder Ma, who works in
investment, is still single and is a firm
information could be boring. As for
hobbies, what if you know nothing
about the other person’s preferences?
“The participants talk to seven or
eight people over an hour or so,’’ he
says. “Sometimes I would meet a girl
with whom I am willing to share a lot,
while sometimes a cold silence
would descend.”
The activities he attended were
organized by the matchmaking plat-
form Maisui Danshen Gongshe (“ear
of wheat singles’ community”).
It claims to have 40,000 clients in
Beijing and three brick-and-mortar
meeting places around the capital.
Every night from 6:30 pm, each
place will feature different blind
date activities for about 20 people.
Besides the eight-minute blind date,
other activities include asking peo-
ple to share a secret, do some daring
tasks or play a board game, which is
also a popular way for people to
meet and interact.
Wang paid the platform 3,
yuan, which allows him to participate
in all these activities as many times as
he likes until he gets married. Addi-
tionally, during his leisure time, hebeliever in “the law of attraction”.
“Before building this platform, I
used to think sending posts about
seeking love was embarrassing, espe-
cially for people who tend to be shy,”
says Ma. “But now I regard it as a
brave and necessary step for starting
a good marriage.
“Pursuing a relationship by taking
action is better than just waiting
around.
“We built this platform to encour-
age young adults to bravely tell people
that they are seeking romance.”Helpful sources
According to a report by the
National Bureau of Statistics and
Ministry of Civil Affairs, the marriage
rate in China has been in decline for
five consecutive years. In 2013, about
9.9 people got married for every
1,000 people, while last year the rate
fell to about 7.2 people.
The key age group for marriage is
also changing. In a report released
by the Ministry of Civil Affairs, peo-
ple aged between 20 to 24 account-
ed for the highest marriage
registrations before 2012, but in
2017 that group had changed to
people between 25 and 29. This
group made up 36.9 percent of
all registered couples. It is
clear that younger people are
deciding to wait that bit
longer before taking the
plunge.
In a 2018 survey released
by Zhenai, a popular match-
making website, almost 60
percent of those classified as
single had not dated for three
years. It also found that 70 per-
cent of single people who live in cities
feel anxious about how to get into a
relationship, while only 40 percent
who live in smaller townships have
the same concerns.
These are changing times. Most
young people say they don’t like
arranged marriages or parental
interference in their love lives. A sur-
vey released by the China Youth Daily
in June shows that more than 61 per-
cent of young people oppose
arranged marriages and wanted
their parents to stay out of their
search for a partner.
Many online matchmaking servi-
ces have emerged in recent years.
The three biggest service providers
are Jiayuan, founded in 2003, which
claims to have 190 million users;
Zhenai, founded in 2005 with 170
million users; and Baihe founded in
2005 with 100 million users. All
three websites also have their own
apps. Users who are free to register
on these websites may need to pay a
fee while interacting with other
users.
“The website provides me with a
great range of choices,” says Huang
Ying, 32, who works for a State-
owned electricity company in
Guangzhou, Guangdong province.
She has spent 388 yuan ($55) on
Zhenai for a year to contact people
via its app.
“Most users have verified their
identity on the app and have a brief
statement about themselves as well
as what kind of person they are look-
ing for,” Huang says.
Huang did date a man she met on
Zhenai for about six months but she
broke up with him.
“I believe family and educational
background are vital considerations
when choosing a life partner,” says
Huang, who adds that there is no
shortcut, as the only way to find the
right person is to go out and social-
ize and not be afraid of rejection.Reaching out
Wang Ziyu, 27, who works
as a product manager at a
startup company in Beijing,
is going to attend an eight-min-
ute blind date. This, as the name
implies, is a speed dating event that is
common in Western countries. With-
in the allotted timespan, he will talk
with one female participant. He has
taken part in these events three times
in the past two months but still feels a
bit unsure about the best way to break
the ice with a stranger.
He says discussing work might
seem self-centered, and personalA night for romance
The country’s own Valentine’s Day will see new technology help people search for true love, Jiang Yijing reports.
From top: Young people read other singles’ information at a dating
event last August ahead of Qixi Festival in Shijiazhuang, Hebei
province. A young woman joins thousands of other singles at a dating
event in Dongguan, Guangdong province. Singles attend an eight-
minute blind date held in Anshun, Guizhou province.
PHOTOS BY JIA MINJIE, AN DONG AND LU WEI / FOR CHINA DAILYPROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY