From Overseas Press

Dating competitions reflect rampant money-worship values

(chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-06-25 16:42

The brazen nature of some dating competitions, including events on Chinese provincial television, has raised concerns in China about society's obsession with money and the extreme commoditizing of sex and relationships, said an article in the Telegraph on June 23.

The article pointed out that the competition run by jiayuan.com, one of the country's largest online dating agencies has attracted huge attention in China. In China, online dating is becoming one of the Internet's fastest-growing and most competitive industries and expected to be worth £120m this year, said the article.

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Aimed at finding the perfect match for 18 of its millionaire members, the competition has drawn 50,000 Chinese applicants. "Hopefuls from as far afield as Vancouver, Singapore, New York and Paris flew in to China last weekend to join local girls in the first round of auditions, which saw an initial selection of 2,600 successful applicants," said the article.

After being assessed on the basis of their weight, figures, education and age, many were rejected during assessments by a Chinese "fengshui" master who determined which of the candidates had the potential to increase their future husband's fortune and which had an "unfortunate outlook," said Cheng Yongsheng, a director at jiayuan.com.

Similarly, earlier this year one female contestant on a television dating show caused an online outcry when she flippantly remarked that she would "rather be crying in the backseat of a BMW than smiling on the back of a bicycle," said the article.

But some people are concerned about the social degradation that these dating competitions may bring. "China's much more conservative older generation have compared the search for millionaires' wives to the selection of imperial concubines in ancient times, with the new super-rich elite substituting for the old imperial family," said the article.