"Marriage hunting" becomes a fad among "gold collar" professionals

"Hunting" a marriage through speed dating parties organized by marriage consultants or matchmaking companies seems to go against the romantic ideal by making getting married seem like a task to complete. However, a growing number of professionals who work outside their hometowns cannot find their spouses through the introduction of their relatives like their parents did. Thus, their attitude toward "blind dates" has transformed from "old-fashioned" to "acceptable."

As "Bachelor Day" on November 11 draws near, a well-known HR website has conducted a "special survey on professionals' attitude toward 'marriage hunting'" in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen showing that over 60 percent of those surveyed agree with "marriage hunting". The figure is even higher among single people surveyed: 70 percent of "single people left on the shelf" are eager to bid farewell to the single life through "marriage hunting" and are even willing to spend a fortune on the process.

"Marriage hunting" services cost a minimum of 20,000 yuan!

"After joining the work force, our lives are not as colorful as we had imagined, as we spend all our time travelling to and from work. You may suddenly find: Your social network is too narrow, how is it possible to find love among such a small number of people?" This is an excerpt from an advertisement for a "marriage hunting party" recently organized by a Guangzhou media agency.

Reporters learned that "marriage hunting" only emerged in recent years and has now become known by an increasing number of single people. Target "marriage hunting" service customers are mostly successful and highly talented professionals who specifically list their "hardware" requirements including not only general conditions like age range, height, looks, and education and family background, but also conditions such as three sizes, constellations and the symbolic animal of the birth year. Service fees are higher because of the number of requirements and service items: fees start at 20,000 to 30,000 yuan and can even exceed 100,000 yuan. "Marriage hunting" has a significantly higher success rate than that of ordinary matchmaking parties.

The survey shows that over 60 percent of the surveyed professionals, single or otherwise, accept "marriage hunting"; while 70 percent of single white-collar and gold-collar professionals are willing to accept it.

"We have no spare time and do not believe in the guys we have met. The amount of time left for ladies like us to find love is decreasingly, so we have to lower our conditions and narrow the scope to raise the success rate. We are reluctant, but at the moment we have no better option," said Miss Wang, who is in her early 30's and works as a CEO of a multinational company. Wang will participate in her second "marriage hunting party" next month. She swears, "I will never give up until I succeed."