Viewpoint: In Match Me Abroad, Americans search for love in Singapore – for all the wrong reasons

SINGAPORE –For some baffling reason, two Americans have picked Singapore as the place in which they look for The One in the matchmaking reality show Match Me Abroad (2023 to present).

Someone has somehow convinced the series’ producers that the city-state is a world capital of romance. This, without a doubt, is the greatest marketing coup of all time.

Season 2 hopeful Harold Davis, 43, comes from New Mexico. The nuclear energy engineer is an anime fan and, tragically, everything about him feeds into the stereotype of the white guy who takes refuge in the idea that, over here, his American average converts to an Asian awesome.

“Singaporean women are beautiful and sexy. A lot of women over there love anime. It would be cool if we nerded out on the same things,” he says in

an episode of Match Me Abroad 2

, which is showing on TLC (Singtel TV Channel 254) on Fridays at 9pm.

He is not hiding the fact that he is looking for a “waifu”, but his honesty is endearing. The autism that makes him socially awkward has also made him sweetly vulnerable.

Harold is not doing well on his dates. He tries so hard, which is heartbreaking. It is like seeing a little boy try out for the team only to be sent back by the coach.

He and his first Singapore date, a teachers’ trainer named Zi Hui (nicknamed Cheezy), go to a cat cafe, where they sketch and have drinks afterwards. Their conversation flows like molasses. He covers up the silence with overlong descriptions of his life, which makes it worse.

In a bid to achieve a breakthrough, like a desperate general gambling it all on a frontal attack, he asks to hold her hand. She agrees, reluctantly.

“Harold’s hand was really clammy. It’s not a nice feeling,” she says to the camera later. She ends the date by saying it is getting late – a classic move by someone who is not feeling it.

His next date, Amber, takes him to a foodcourt, where she orders stewed pig ears.

“Try the one with the cartilage,” she tells him, not noticing that his first bite of the dish moments earlier had almost made him cry, and not in a good way. Unsurprisingly, the cartilage bits do not improve his opinion of the dish.

To be fair to him, pig ears is advanced-level eating, even in Singapore.

Amber and Harold get a second date, but I will not spoil the ending.

Like Harold, Sarah Strain, 36, from Texas has a style all her own. The blonde jewellery designer has the doll-like look many will associate with the women on Fox News. She might be a 10 in Texas, but in Tampines, her look might be a bit much.

“Singapore men have it all going on. Singapore men are hot. They have a thick head of hair, they’re masculine and a lot of them are very fit,” she says over a montage of Asian male models staring sultrily into the camera, as if viewers were tapping a live stream of her brain.

Singapore as a nexus of hot, manly men with great scalp health was news to me. Had she, like many Americans before her, confused Singapore with some place else? Was she having a “Senator, I’m a Singaporean” moment? Then she cleared it all up.

“Give me Nick Young from Crazy Rich Asians any day. I’d be so happy.”

The term Paris Syndrome was coined to describe Japanese tourists who arrive at the French capital hoping to see the bastion of culture and grace that books and movies have trained them to expect. Instead, they find pickpockets and rudeness, causing them to suffer breakdowns.

This must be similar to the crushing disillusionment that comes after overseas fans of the hit 2018 romantic comedy movie get here, hoping to find a Henry Golding, but see only Ken Jeongs and Jimmy O. Yangs. At least we have a nice airport.

On the show, Singapore matchmaker Dolly Chua has the job of selling Harold and Sarah to the locals. In her introduction, Ms Chua says “because of Singapore’s low birth rate, matchmaking is popular here”.

One day, someone will dispel the idea that Singaporeans are like zoo pandas, unable to make offspring without a lot of outside intervention, but it will not be Ms Chua.

She sensibly tries to get Sarah to tone down her look, but her client is not having it.

“I always do my make-up the same, unless it’s night-time. Then, I do full glam,” says Sarah, hinting that when it gets dark, she transforms into her final form. It sounds vaguely sinister.

Undeterred by the setback, Ms Chua matches her with an artist and beatboxer in his 30s named Freddy. He might be a troll, because he takes a fully primped Sarah to Geylang, the red-light district, where he has picked a frog porridge restaurant. That her make-up does not run down her face in rivers of sweat is a feat of modern chemistry.

Sarah’s face – or at least the parts of it that can still move – registers disgust. Nick Young would never feed frogs to Rachel Chu.

The other participants on Match Me Abroad have travelled from the US to Brazil and Ireland. The American women are, for the most part, levitating with joy with the men they are matched with in those countries.

The same cannot be said for Sarah in Singapore. Her post-date reaction makes for great TV.

Like most reality programmes, Match Me Abroad is less about finding love and more about putting thumbscrews on participants and filming the meltdown. Freddy was most likely asked by producers to give her frog when Sarah wanted Prince Charming.

Harold might yet get his dream crushed in later episodes, but part of me is hoping that this sweet man leaves Singapore with his Asian doll fantasies intact. He is just that likeable.