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‘Rather be single forever’: 20 men queuing for details of 1 woman at blind dating event in China reveals serious sex-ratio imbalance

South China Morning Post 28/1/2023 Alice Yan

A video of more than 20 men queuing up to scan a woman's QR code in the hope of a future date has renewed debate on China's serious gender imbalance
The walls of the room were hung with paper listing the personal information of participants, including age, height, weight, education and occupation

A video of a blind dating event in eastern China where more than 20 men scrambled with each other to meet a woman has highlighted the country's gender imbalance and the difficulty men face seeking a relationship.

The blind dating event in Jiangxi province earlier this month had far more men than women, news portal Su Kan Shi Jie reported.

The video showed more than 20 men queuing up to scan a woman's QR code on WeChat in the hope of a future date, the report said.

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"I feel humble to the extreme. I prefer to remain single for my whole life," said the man who filmed the scene.

Many who saw the video were horrified by the desperation on display at the event. Photo: Weibo

The walls of the room were hung with numerous pieces of paper listing the personal information of the single participants, including age, height, weight, educational background, occupation and family details, as well as the standards they set for potential partners.

One 28-year-old woman who works as a kindergarten teacher said in her resume that she hoped her future husband would at least be 170cm tall and should have at least a secondary school diploma.

"It's fine that he is in business by himself, but it would be better if he had a stable job. He should be an outgoing person with an enterprising spirit," stated the woman's requirements for potential suitors.

The video of the blind date event has gone viral and was viewed 48 million times on Weibo alone and attracted tens of thousands of comments.

China's serious gender imbalance has seen bride prices soar over the past decade. Photo: AFP

"I am speechless at this ratio of 20 men for a woman," one person said.

Another person commented: "This is karma for the previous one-child family planning policy and the public's preference for boys over girls."

"It is in stark contrast with urban areas where there are many 'leftover women'. Those blind date corners in parks are full of women's posters," a third person said.

"Leftover women" is a frequently-used term in China, referring to a feudal mentality that a woman's life is over if not married by a certain age, as young as 25 in rural areas and 30 in cities.

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China has 722 million men and 690 million women, a surplus of roughly 32 million men to women, much of it concentrated among those born during the one-child policy era from 1980-2015.

The problem is more pronounced in rural areas where the preference for boys over girls is more deeply ingrained and many women leave to work in the cities.

As a result, bride prices have soared over the past decade across China. It is paid by men's families to brides' parents as compensation for raising daughters who are often seen as non-productive and far less desirable than sons and to convince the women's parents to support the marriage.

‘Rather be single forever’: 20 men queuing for details of 1 woman at blind dating event in China reveals serious sex-ratio imbalance

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