No BMW, no marriage for money-grubbing young Chinese

Source:Global Times Published: 2010-5-4 21:25:50


Illustrations: Liu Rui

By Wu Mian

It is every man's dream. A total of 24 pretty women in their 20s, all dressed up, standing behind a counter with their name and age marked, looking at you. You are one of the male contestants who want to go home with one of them at the end of the show.

In order to impress them, you need to be good-looking, eloquent, and do your best to show off in three rounds: the opening pose, the self-introduction and a video clip of your friends' com-ments on you. Each one of the girls has one light, if she likes you, she leaves the light on, if not, she turns it off.

If after three rounds, you have more than one female admirer, then it is your turn to be in control. You get to choose the one you like, and walk away with her with the dating funds offered by the program.

But this is also every man's nightmare. Once you are on the stage, you are judged at all times. One-third of the girls would turn their lights off because you are not tall enough, or don't have a face that suits the camera.

Another one-third or so will cut you off during the self-introduction part because you don't make enough each month, or your parents don't have good health, or you have had too many previ-ous relationships.

The master of ceremony will ask the girls the reason why they reject you. You will hear bizarre reasons such as "your eyes are too big" or pragmatic reasons like "I don't want to have a baby while you do."

Worst of all, if you are not handsome, not rich, not well-educated, or not from a powerful family, you will leave the stage a laughing stock.

The TV program called Feichengwurao (literally meaning "don't disturb me if you are not sincere") is now popular nationwide. It has even made stars out of the picky female guests.

One, Ma Nuo, became well-known for her remarks that she would "rather cry in a BMW than laugh on a bicycle." Netizens condemned her for the undisguised worship of money and her sexy online portfolio. Yet all this just made Ma all the more famous.

Such hyping can hardly make news nowadays. Following the trend of naked photos and sex tapes started by Paris Hilton and other celebrities, young people nowadays feel no guilt in posting candid photos online in the hope of catching attention, which might ultimately lead to fame and money.

Young people are also showing off their wealth by posting photos of them wearing designers' clothes and branded handbags, or even holding a stack of cash in their hands.

Such acts inevitably cause great condemnation online, yet more and more youngsters seem to jump right into it, as if getting rich is the only way to prove their success, or even superiority.

This is a horrible slippery slope. Since when have we been categorized by our wealth?

Before you try to deny it, you may find the world is falling into a strange circle nowadays. Men are reluctant to get married, claiming they can't afford it. In-laws, unlike the old days, now demand houses and cars before approving the marriage. More and more young women also make "house plus car" a condition for marriage.

 

It seems that such values are being generally accepted in a society in which skyrocketing real estate prices make it almost impossible for young couples in their 20s to purchase a house by themselves.

More often than not, one could only count on rich or well-connected in-laws for this. No wonder that even TV shows have started to encourage people to judge their perfect partner by their an-nual income and whether or not they own a house.

If this sense of superiority exists in spouse-picking, does it exist in other walks of our life as well? Or perhaps the real question is, why does money become the sole standard of success? What about knowledge, taste, kindness or vision?

All these important qualities seem to be outweighed by money in China nowadays.

Pursuing wealth has driven progress. But when money becomes the only measurement of success, the public may put it before everything else, like the girl who announced that she wouldn't marry "anyone without a BMW" on a TV program.

These are the values of China in 2010, at least partly.

The author is an editor with the Global Times. wumian@globaltimes.com.cn



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