Dating

Shenzhen remains mainland’s most expensive city in which to fall in love and marry

Posted: 10/25/2012 1:00 pm

Shenzhen remained the most expensive city on the Chinese mainland in which to hold a wedding and also to live as a married couple, according to Guangdong Satellite Television. With the cost of weddings alone often exceeding RMB2 million, it pushed Beijing into second and kept Guangzhou down in fourth.

The statistics take into account the cost of an apartment. An 80 square meter apartment in Shenzhen currently costs an average of 1.78 million yuan, according to Guangdong Satellite Television. It costs another 150,000 yuan to furnish and maintain the apartment.

Before the wedding, dating is estimated to cost over 1,500 yuan a month, including travelling, buying presents and other activities, meaning that being in a two year relationship would cost over RMB2 million.

As for the wedding itself, food and booze cost an average of around RMB50,000. The honeymoon, even to a relatively cheap location, costs around RMB12,000. A car costs at least RMB100,000.

Outfits and make-up, the cost of the room for the wedding reception, and transportation to and from the location of the reception, are also taken into account.

A wedding photographer told Guangdong Satellite Television that business has been getting better in recent years thanks to the increasing amounts of money that families are spending on weddings.

He put this down to couples deciding that a once-in-a-lifetime experience was worth forking out for, even though current urban divorce rates poke a hole in those couples’ theory.

Getting married is now estimated to be 700 times more expensive than it was in the 1970s. One couple who got married during that turbulent decade said their wedding cost around RMB700. Their clothes for the big day cost a few dozen RMB and the booze cost another few dozen.

But before you start screaming about modern excess and the youth of today, there is hope. Shenzhen Daily reported last week that a couple in Shenzhen had donated 80,000 yuan to students in impoverished areas of Guizhou Province to make their wedding day more meaningful.

Tagged: Breaking DawnDatingGuangdong Satellite TelevisionGuizhou Provincehoneymoonproperty pricesTwilightWedding

Nanfang TV: Guangzhou holds private party for billionaires seeking wives

Posted: 05/24/2012 7:00 am

For many people in China, the naked pursuit of money and power is nothing to be ashamed of. After all, practicality and money trumps outdated concepts like love and courtship, right?

That is definitely the case for 28,000 women who painstakingly filled out application forms in an attempt to bag one of 11 billionaires who are seeking wives. A private party was held at the Garden Hotel in Guangzhou last Sunday (May 20) featuring 320 of the finalists - those whose applications were deemed sufficient for closer inspection. The billionaires themselves weren’t apparently in attendance; rather, their minions had the task of sorting the wheat from the chaff, so to speak.

Free More News reports the average age of the women applying was 28, with the youngest being only 19:

Among all the applicants, a lot of them have received higher educations. Some have studies abroad and hold master’s degrees. One of the billionaire claimed to have over ten billions yuan of assets. He said he was under 50, divorced, and looking for a beautiful woman who must be a virgin around 20 to 26 years old.

We present the long-song filled footage from the private party in today’s Nanfang TV.

Tagged: BillionairesDatingGarden HotelGuangzhouRelationships

Guangdong votes for happiest couples

Posted: 08/30/2011 9:12 am

It’s no secret that the provincial government’s latest PR campaign is “Happy Guangdong“, focusing on how this place is so much more than just cheap migrant labour. While Guangdong may be rich, the comrades in charge are making sure to point out that they are also happy, harmonious even, in the words of Hu Jintao.

With this in mind, netizens across the region voted for the “10 Best Husbands and Wives” in Guangdong to showcase how love really does last here, despite the plethora of mistresses. The Nanfang Daily has the details:

The competition, held by the Women’s Federation of Guangdong Province, started receiving applications in May this year and attracted more than a thousand participantswho told their love stories through the Internet and received votes from netizens. Up to August 26, more than 10 million people cast their votes.

So who won this thing?

The award of “Best Golden Couple” (those married for more than 50 years) is granted to Yang Yingbin and Zheng Liya, a highly-respected couple both in their nineties. Yang and Zheng met during the second Sino-Japanese War in 1938. While they had grown deep feelings for each other ever since, they made a mutual agreement and didn’t get married until the day after the Japanese troops signed to surrender. After that, Yang and Zheng went through the brutal Cultural Revolution and held on to each other ever since.

Except for the deep love between the two of them, they also showed their selflessness to the outside world by cumulatively giving needy people tens of thousands of RMB.

We’ve never had one single fight, not even a quarrel,” said Zheng, the wife, when she recalled the past 74 years they have been in love.

Yes, it’s comforting to know that long-lasting love can be found here in “Happy Guangdong”.

(Translations done by Ellen Wang)

Tagged: CouplesDatingLoveNanfang DailyRelationships

NYT: Chinese women seek money first, love second

Posted: 04/16/2011 8:00 am

At the risk of diving into an incredibly controversial topic, we take a look at an article published in the New York Times on Friday regarding dating habits of Chinese women.

The article points out that, according to a survey, 70 percent of Chinese women will only consider marrying a man who already owns property.

Among the qualities they seek in a mate, 50 percent said that financial considerations ranked above all else, with good morals and personality falling beneath the top three requirements.

Zhang Yanhong, a matchmaking consultant at Baihe, one of the country’s most popular dating sites, said many disheartened men had simply dropped out of the marriage market.

“This fixation on real estate has twisted the popular notion of love and marriage,” she said. “Women are putting economic factors above everything else when looking for a mate, and this is not a good thing for relationships or for society.”

While this article deals particularly with Chinese women dating and marrying Chinese men, the arguments are pertinent to foreigners as well. If you ask any male foreigner about their dating prowess in China, chances are they’ll tell you that they have been quite successful; nay, are even chased by many pretty women. This can lead one to believe that they are desirable, that Chinese women love foreigners, etc, but this might not necessarily be the case.

It would take a volume of books to explain the differing socio-economic, historical and cultural differences between the east and west, and no judgment is being passed here. But looking purely at the country’s economic situation, which has been poor for several hundred years, perhaps the desire to find money ahead of love is understandable.

In my time in the country, having lived in Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Hong Kong, I’ve seen foreign friends get married and get divorced, and seen the ugly side of some marriages. I’ve also seen successful ones. (Not unlike marriages anywhere, I might add) But when two people of vastly different cultural and economic backgrounds get together, it’s even more important for both sides to begin the relationship with their eyes open: sometimes when love seems too easy, there’s a lot more to it than meets the eye.

Tagged: DatingLoveMoneyNYTPropertyThe New York TimesWomen

“Mistress Festival” doesn’t go as planned; still yearn for respect

Posted: 03/5/2011 6:00 am

Mistresses in China (and there are many) are rising up: they are severing the shackles of disrespect and boldly yearning for acceptance. But it isn’t going so well.

Proud mistresses in China set up a so-called “Mistress Festival” online on March 3 to air their grievances and celebrate their profession. The date (3/3) is auspicious, because “Little Three” (小三) is often a nickname given to mistresses, given that they are the third party in the relationship. But when there’s an online gathering, you have to expect those who oppose your agenda might appear, such as, say, a wronged wife. And that’s what happened:

Things got off to a bad start when, in her introduction, an invited wife proclaimed her loyalty to her husband.

She was assailed by mistresses mocking her “loyalty” and teasing her by saying they would seduce her husband.

Other participants came to the defense of the beleaguered wife, criticizing the aggressive behavior of the mistresses.

As levels of abuse escalated and chaos reigned, the moderator was forced to warn participants to behave.

This is a hot topic in China, as mistresses seem to be as common as yangrou chuanr stands. The PRD, in particular, is a famous haven for mistresses in relationships with men from nearby Hong Kong and Taiwan. Unlike in the west, however, there appears to be less stigma for mistresses in China; they are almost accepted as an accessory if a man becomes successful enough to have earned one. Even wives will often look the other way, knowing their husbands are just “having fun” and wouldn’t leave the marriage.

So do mistresses deserve respect? There are very few professions that are as shameless; mistresses basically sell their good looks for a pseudo-relationship with a married man, which is only one degree removed from another famous profession. But from their perspective, they are just cashing in: if a man wants to pay a monthly salary, by Gucci handbags and set her up in a good apartment, why shouldn’t she accept? Beats working 9-5 in an office, right?

If you want to check out the website for the mistress festival, you can find it here in Chinese only.