Chinese women are losing interest in foreign men as the financial crisis hits western wallets.

A survey by matchmaking website Hongniang.com showed that before the "Lehman crash" of September 2008, 72 percent of Chinese women married to foreigners were happy with their lot, but that figure has since dropped to 54 percent.

And the proportion of Chinese women who say they would be willing to marry foreigners has slumped from 43 percent to just 17 percent.

The top eight choices for foreign husbands before the crisis broke were Canada, America, South Korea, France, Japan, Singapore, Britain, and Australia. But since then America has dropped from 2nd to 5th place and Britain has been eliminated altogether. The new list leader is Australia, which has been relatively untouched by the global slump.

Fang Fang, an expert from Hongniang.com, said that while Chinese women are traditional in outlook and seek security and stability, they often find their foreign husbands are not so attached to family life, and this is one of the main reasons transnational marriages fail.

She added that Chinese are fanatical savers, while Westerners are addicted to spending-- often on credit. The perception of foreign husbands as spendthrifts in troubled times has further reduced their attraction.

Before September 2008, 53 percent of Chinese women said they would marry a Chinese man as their first choice, but that figure rose to 68 percent after the financial crisis rocked the world economy.

(China.org.cn by Fan Junmei, March 24, 2009)