One of the
interesting things you can find in public city parks in China is a “marriage market.” For a relatively small fee, parents of unwed adult children can post descriptions of their offspring, hoping to attract a possible mate (or, more likely, parent of a mate, who will pass along the information).
In some cases, the advertisements, for lack of a better word, include photos, but normally, they include text that describes the physical details, job or job prospects, and other statistical information about the single person in question. Apparently the success rate of these marriage markets isn’t very high, but as you can see, that doesn’t seem to detract from their popularity. A couple of years ago, I saw one in Chengdu, in Sichuan Province, and it was just as busy and crowded as this one, in People’s Park in Shanghai.
One Comment
June Grasso posted on July 8, 2013 at 2:58 pm
Amazing phenomenon. And an interesting way of trying to get around the old, banned “arranged marriages” system with, I assume, government approval. On a somewhat related note, there is a great editorial in the NY Times today about the return of “filial piety.” It has become law that elderly parents must be “honored,” that is, supported after they retire from their jobs.