Proposals becoming business proposition
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E-mail China Daily, November 12, 2012
Popping the question is a big deal for any couple - and it is increasingly big business, too.
According to event organizers, young Chinese are spending large amounts of money to make sure their proposals are memorable occasions.
"Heavy pressure from family and work is driving young people to go all out for proposals and weddings," said Sun Qiang, manager of Pheromone, a Beijing company that specializes in organizing proposals.
The trend began in 2008, he said, and in the past four years his company has helped organize about 700 proposals.
His clients, mainly office workers, spend about 7,000 yuan ($1,100) on average for a proposal.
"The most anyone has spent is 14,000 yuan," Sun said. "My clients are not rich people. They are ordinary workers. These proposals may cost more than a month's salary."
And the trend is not limited to Beijing. Qingdao Financial Daily reported that scores of companies have sprung up since 2010 to offer proposal events in Qingdao, Shandong province. The cost ranges from 4,000 to 20,000 yuan.
And in Wuhan, capital of Hubei province, roughly 10 percent of young men now plan romantic proposals, making the industry "promising", He Zetian, manager of Haowenze Creative Proposal Planning Studio, was quoted as saying by Chutian Metropolis Daily.
Traditionally, Chinese people put less emphasis on proposals than in Western societies. Yet, as more people struggle to find partners, that has changed.
Yang Kai, a Beijing police officer, said he rented a cinema on Singles' Day - Nov 11 - last year to pop the question, costing him about 5,000 yuan. The couple married in December.
"My wife deserved a special day, and I wanted to show my love for her," said the 27-year-old, adding that he even had the proposal recorded. "We always watch the video. It makes us happy."
For Yang, Singles' Day is now an occasion to celebrate, but for millions of unwed workers it is a painful reminder of their frustrating search for love.
Since the 1990s, when Chinese students appropriated Nov 11 as a kind of Valentine's Day for lonely hearts, the day has become a time for blind dates and other matchmaking events.
For many young people, particularly those under pressure from their parents to find partners, it is a day to dread.
"I know I need a girlfriend and do want to get married, but it's not an issue that can be settled in a day," said Wang Xiaowei, a computer programmer whose single status is a constant topic of concern for his mother.
The 29-year-old, who moved to Beijing from Linyi in Shandong province three years ago, said he tried his first matchmaking event on Saturday, held in a gymnasium in the capital's Xicheng district.
"I wiped out," he said on Sunday. "Maybe I'm not attractive, in my person or either my financial situation."
Wang earns 5,000 yuan a month. In a recent poll the Ministry of Civil Affairs and Baihe, an online dating company, used to survey the opinions of 22,548 women between the ages of 20 and 60, about 27 percent of the respondents said they would only consider dating a man who earns at least double that amount.
Dong Xiayan, 27, who went to the same event as Wang, said she has been ordered by her mother to find a husband before her next birthday in April.
"For a woman, it gets more difficult to find a good man after 30," she said.
Zhou Xiaopeng, a consultant for the Baihe dating website, said the situation is a headache for young people and their parents.
"Many people joke about being single, but I think they're in the minority," she said. "Meanwhile, some concerned parents even register with our website to search for a potential partner for their children."
She said the peak time for new registrations is after holidays, such as Spring Festival and Singles' Day.
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