Dating show, If You Are the One, is one of the toughest reality TV gigs around.
In short, a lone male contestant is interrogated by 24 beautiful women, who all have very particular tastes, and ambitions related more to gaining celebrity status than finding love.
Most guys walk away empty-handed.
So, when The Feed was given exclusive behind-the scenes access, we took along a box of band-aids to help mend the broken hearts and bruised egos of the unlucky men.
Over several months, we followed a bunch of Aussie contestants who were preparing to appear in two special episodes.
It took us from the gruelling selection process here in Australia, to the dressing rooms and studios of If You Are the One in Nanjing, China.
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At the auditions in Sydney, we watched the program’s tireless producer and co-founder, Chen Chen, interview more than 100 women in a day.
There was no shortage of ladies in their twenties, lamenting the pressure that their Chinese parents were putting on them to find a husband and settle down.
But settle down with who?
One potential contestant said she prefers men with ‘single eyelids’ as they look more manly. Another said she wanted someone she could do stupid stuff with, like farting in lifts.
They were all meant to have good Mandarin Chinese, but a poor grasp of the language could be offset by other appealing traits.
It’s a place for lovers, not losers.
"The audience wants to see a woman with something special,” Chen Chen told us, flicking through videos she’d taken on her phone of the girls she liked. Long legs, cheeky smiles, quirky outfits.
"They’ll either be really good looking or express themselves really well. The best is when they’re both!"
Meanwhile, ten Aussie guys were selected.
There was David, a part-time pilates instructor looking for a “future wife”, Ben, the Anglo-Aussie student with eerily impeccable Mandarin, and Malcolm, the piano-playing lawyer from Perth.
Nanjing, an old city that has at times been China’s capital, has a romantic feel to it. It’s a place for lovers, not losers. 
On the eve of the show record, in a hotel lobby bar, the guys got together for a pep talk.
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Edward, a maths teacher with a kung-fu habit, was not going to be put off by the potential word daggers of the female contestants.
“I’ve been rejected many times before, so I don’t really care what they say.”
But the reality of wearing your heart on your sleeve in front of 50 million viewers is actually pretty daunting. On show day, the girls are hustled between hairdressers and makeup artists.
Eyelid tape is an option, turning single eyelids into doubles for those who prefer a more “western” look. Fake lashes are compulsory.
One well-endowed contestant confides, rather loudly, that her assets are 100% real.
At some point, a box of burgers arrives. Beautiful women in ball gowns eating burgers. To quench their thirst, there’s wine and Redbull.
The If you Are the One Crew are patient and endlessly helpful, but not afraid to tell a lady when she needs to hurry up and stop taking selfies.
The guys, in a separate part of the building, are each given a bottle of potent Chinese liquor. One of them describes it as raw ethanol. 
There’s a fine line between a nerve-calming tipple, and a slurring mess who can’t walk straight, let alone impress 24 single ladies.
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When Meng Fei walks on stage, it’s show time.
From the wings, we wonder if matches will be made, true love found, future marriages and babies initiated.
Also watching quietly is Chen. In its six years on air, she’s seen around 300 marriages ... and many more broken hearts. Poker faced, she offers us chocolate and a lesson in love.
“Some of the couples who seemed really well suited, broke up after dating for a short while.
"But other couples, who we hadn’t predicted, have ended up married and had children together”.
As the girls take to the stage, we eat the chocolate like it’s popcorn and don’t place any bets.
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