Illustration: Chen Xia/GT
November 11 is China's Singles' Day, known colloquially as 11.11. In the run-up to this popular shopping and splurging holiday, Chinese online dating website zhenai.com recently released a detailed report on the country's male bachelors based on a sample survey of its 100 million registered users. The results sent shock waves through Shanghai's singles' scene.
The report pointed out that over 50 percent of single Chinese males interviewed said they earn only between 3,000 yuan ($442.97) and 5,000 yuan per month.
Around 30 percent said they earn 5,000 yuan to 8,000 yuan a month, while only around 10 percent reported earning a monthly salary higher than 8,000 yuan.
Even more upsetting to single women, the website defined any single male whose monthly disposable income was at least 8,000 yuan as an "eligible bachelor." According to this qualification, Shanghai is now home to China's largest population of so-called suitable single males.
The backlash was swift, with many netizens arguing that 8,000 yuan is far too low for Shanghai women seeking a husband and would not even cover one adult's basic monthly expenses.
Other online statistics show that a majority of single women in Shanghai expect their future boyfriend or husband to earn no less than 12,000 yuan a month. That means there is a 4,000 yuan discrepancy just to qualify as a prospective spouse.
But cash isn't the only thing that single women are seeking. Most females in their mid-20s here also expect their future husband to own at least one property in Shanghai; without an apartment, many Chinese women will turn up their nose at suitors.
My friend Lily, for example, once refused a beau who earned 20,000 yuan a month but owned no property in Shanghai. "He has to spend almost half of his monthly salary just on house loans, which leaves nothing for me," she complained.
To escape the pressure of such superficial qualifications, many Chinese males prefer to live alone rather than be in a relationship, which in turn has driven up the bachelor population.
Official 2016 statistics revealed that, among all 18- to 40-year-olds in Shanghai, there are more single males than females, with a ratio of 53.24 against 46.76.
My middle school male classmate confirmed that he feels freer staying single. "I dated some girls in Shanghai, and spent a lot of money pursuing them. But when they found out I cannot afford property in Shanghai, they complained and then broke up with me," he said.
As a single Chinese woman in my early 20s who has gone on a number of dates in Shanghai but still has not found Mr. Right, I have personally met a number of eligible bachelors with above-average appearance, ideal economic status and a good education who straight-up said that they'd prefer to stay single.
For instance, one man I went on a blind date with suggested that Chinese women are a burden.
"Once I dated a girl who required me to take her to nice restaurants regularly and buy her all kinds of gifts," the man told me during our date. "If I didn't, she would get unhappy, and whenever she was unhappy I'd have to console her. With my work I'm too busy for all that nonsense, so then she'd complain that I didn't love her," he said.
The man, who wound up being my friend instead of boyfriend, confessed to me that instead of wasting all his time on high-maintenance women, he'd rather stay single so that he can enjoy the fruits of his labor - traveling, buying nice clothes and dining out - all to himself.
This prototype of perfectly content bachelor should serve as a warning for single ladies in Shanghai who naively believe that all men are just dying to spend their hard-earned money courting them.
The proof is in the numbers that they are quite happy without women; meanwhile, our biological clocks are ticking, and the longer we wait for an eligible man to sweep us off our feet, the higher likelihood we have of becoming the dreaded "leftovers" of society.
The opinions expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Global Times.
