Marriage has frequently worked as a means to reproduce and sustain a people and their culture, despite its outward appearance of individualism. The family is, after all, society’s fundamental unit.
However, millions of people around the world have found it difficult to locate the “perfect” lifemate for a variety of reasons. It is such a big deal in China that it has spawned something called “Marriage Markets.”
People assemble at the Marriage Market to advertise and explore their “items,” much like they would at a regular neighbourhood market. These “products,” in a sense, are unmarried sons and daughters, as opposed to your normal market.
Every weekend, anxious parents (and sometimes grandparents) meet in popular public spaces such as Shanghai’s People’s Park and various parks and other public spaces in Beijing to advertise and scout potential marriages for their unmarried children.
Typically, parents will post sheets of paper outlining their children’s suitability as a potential spouse and the attributes a future son- or daughter-in-law should possess. Some of the characteristics, according to a 2018 Shanghai Marriage Market survey, are:
When it came to potential husbands, the majority of males favoured younger ladies, while women preferred someone of their own age. The majority of the adverts are aimed at adults in their late twenties and early thirties.
Job and education status: Job and education status are two of the most important pieces of personal information to include in any advertisement. The dating pool is highly educated, according to the survey, with two-thirds of both men and women holding a Bachelor’s Degree or more. A majority of women wanted a mate with a similar level of education, while men preferred slightly less accomplished companions, according to those who declared educational criteria for potential marriages.
Asset ownership: Asset ownership is frequently highlighted in marriage market marketing. Before getting married, a man should be able to provide a car and a home. Those who own a car and a home are thought to be more desirable than those who do not.
Zodiac year and astrological sign: It is not uncommon to encounter adverts that specify prerequisites for potential spouses based on their Chinese zodiac year and Western astrological sign. People born in different zodiac years were supposed to have particular personality traits that made them more or less compatible with people born under different animal signs in the past. These personal advertisements are frequently tagged to umbrellas that function as temporary stands by the parents. They then communicate with other parents in order to set up blind dates for their children.
Women who have gone missing and the leftovers
On Saturdays and Sundays in Shanghai’s People’s Park, China’s largest marriage market is hosted. In the year 2004, the market grew naturally.
A significant gender imbalance, parental worry, and a wave of emancipated women with a different marriage ideology are all factors that have contributed to this situation.
The now-defunct one-child policy, which China implemented from 1979 to 2015, has resulted in a major gender imbalance in China. Due to severe family size restrictions and a predilection for sons, China has an unusually low female population, which is referred to as the “missing women of China.”
The male population outnumbers the female population by more than 30 million, according to data from China’s National Bureau of Statistics. Men of marriageable age, known as guang gun (translated as “bare branches” or “bare sticks”), live in countries where marriage is valued as part of one’s social standing as a result of the one-child policy.
In China, many young women’s marital ideologies are changing as well. Women in the country who are well educated and make a lot of money are less eager to marry. They have more choices than previous generations of women, and they are not scared to prioritise their jobs.
Despite their high wages and educational achievement, women who are still unmarried in their late twenties and beyond are stigmatised as shèngnǚ (“leftover” women), and are even encouraged to reduce “unrealistic” criteria in their search for a mate.
