The image of 20 boys lining up to get information about a girl in a matchmaking session in Jiangxi caused a stir in Chinese public opinion.
During a face-to-face matchmaking session held in Jiangxi province in early January, the number of single male participants outnumbered the number of female “candidates”. During the event, the candidates introduced themselves about their height, gender, weight, interests, education and family, which were shown by QR codes in the papers posted on the hall walls.
Video circulating on Chinese social media shows more than 20 boys queuing up to scan a WeChat QR code on a girl’s cover letter, hoping to arrange a date with her.
“I feel so ashamed. I’d rather be single for the rest of my life,” said the man who took the video.
The video is being shared strongly on Chinese social networks, with about 48 million views on the Weibo platform and tens of thousands of comments. Some Weibo users wrote that they were “speechless” when they noticed such a severe disparity between men and women.
Guys line up to get dating information during a hidden matchmaking event in Jiangxi province in January. Photo: Weibo.
Many social media users believe that the scene in Jiangxi is the result of the “one-child policy” that has been in place for a long time in China. This policy, combined with the preference for men and women, is said to have caused the Chinese population to have a serious gender imbalance.
“This scene is far from urban areas, where many women miss their time. Matchmaking sites in the park are full of female brochures,” one social media user commented.
Many Chinese believe that “missing” women are unmarried girls who are over 25 in rural areas or 30 in urban areas.
Dating classes for Chinese men in Shandong province in 2018. Photo: CGTN.
China currently has about 722 million men and 690 million women, with a gap of 32 million people. The majority of Chinese single men are from the generation born during the country’s one-child policy, which lasted from 1980 to 2015.
The situation of men not being able to get married is most serious in rural areas, where son preference has been ingrained in people’s culture for many generations.
Decades of imbalances in the ratio of boys to girls, combined with the tendency of adult women to move to urban areas for work, have led to an increasing number of single men in rural China. .
Name (Theo SCMP)