Friday, February 22, 2008

Match making Shanghainese style


I forgot to mention earlier in the week this truly interesting observation by Shanghaiist. Finding the right partner is a key activity worldwide, but in Shanghai only you can find this massive match making gathering.
We found around a couple of hundred people clutching posters detailing the man or woman available – everything from vital statistics to education history to current income – or little notebooks where they were taking notes of potential candidates. Many of the posters featured passport photos and most had phone numbers, although it seems dubious that this was being done with the knowledge of the advertised person.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Actually, this activity isn't just in "Shanghai only". I authored an article that appeared in the International Herald Tribune, nearly two years ago, surrounding this ritual occurring weekly in Zhongshan Park near Tiananmen Square. It continues, uninterrupted, every Sunday, and is nearly identical to what you have described.

Unknown said...

I'm agreeing with cam89, I also stumbled across a similar matchmaking gathering in Chongqing a couple years ago, but I kept my thoughts to my Lj blog. A quick edit to "can only be found in China" should cover all your bases.

On a completely unrelated note -- found your post about ChinaOnTV from last July. If you have a chance I recommend you go take a look at it again, they've made a ton of changes/improvements over the last couple months.