China Celebrates Valentine's Day (Photo : Getty Images)
Because of China’s gender imbalance, many adult Chinese of marrying age could not find partners. To help their adult children find a partner, some parents go to parks and place pieces of paper on the pavement advertising their unmarried sons and daughters.
One park popular among anxious parents is the Temple of Heaven in Beijing where emperors used to go to pray for bumper harvests. Parks in other parts of China have similar activities happening where parents leave their phone number and make dates for their children, China Daily reported.
Alternative to Online Dating
Besides those basic information, some add additional requirements such as the potential wife not being fat or the potential partner owning an apartment and car. Because some parents successful married off their children through arrangements initiated in the park, word of mouth spread that’s why parks as alternatives to online dating or matchmaking TV shows has become a popular option.
But the challenge remains big because there are around 180 million singles of marrying age in China in 2013. Some children also do not approve of their parent’s meddling into their personal lives.
Rising Bride Prices
To worsen the situation, in the past 17 years, prices of brides in rural areas in China had gone up more than 60 percent, dashing hopes of marriage for poor men in the countryside, according to What’s on Weibo. It cited a Kanka News report that a 24-year-old man, after searching for a wife for seven years found a potential spouse.
However, the family of the woman asked for 180,000 yuan as bride price. The man could only afford 120,000 yuan, so the wedding plans were cancelled. Chinese are now blaming the country’s one-child policy and abortions based on gender for the situation when brides are beyond the reach of single adult men.
