In the mood for love… but not marriage
In China, Taiwan and South Korea, where marriage and fertility rates have plummeted to record lows, anxious parents, concerned city officials and shrewd businesses are going to great lengths to match singles up
BEIJING – Events planner Esther Xu used to spend hours on dating apps Tantan, Coffee Meets Bagel and Tinder hoping to meet her Mr Right, but she quit all of them out of frustration in 2022.
She realised that she was repeating the same conversations with different people and “things just weren’t going anywhere”, she told The Straits Times.
On the rare occasions that she hit it off with someone she met on one of the apps, things fizzled out when they met offline, even after a few dates.
“It felt like an endless cycle,” said Ms Xu, 32, who lives in Guangzhou, the provincial capital of Guangdong in southern China.
Instead, she decided to ask her friends and colleagues to introduce eligible guys to her. That was how she met her boyfriend, whom she has been dating for about a year.
In China, where smartphone apps can deliver just about anything one orders, love does not seem to be on the menu.
Young Chinese told ST that they are increasingly turning to other ways to meet potential dates, including being set up on blind dates by their friends and joining interest groups.
Better quality dates, similar hobbies, and trust in their friends’ and colleagues’ recommendations are among reasons they cited for their preference to meet people through their offline social networks.
Blind dates already feature prominently in China's entertainment scene, appearing in movies and drama serials.
Love, If You Dare, a documentary produced by video-sharing platform Youku, created a buzz recently after several short clips of its 48 episodes went viral on social media and reportedly raked up millions of views. People were apparently drawn to its realistic portrayal of how strangers going on blind dates overcome the initial awkwardness.
In real life, the sentiments towards blind dates are also warm.