It’s led to an increasingly difficult and desperate search for love for those still single, as Marcel Theroux discovered in a story to be broadcast on tonight’s Dateline.
“It’s really important for me to find a wife,” says 39-year-old Li Dongmin. “I get really lonely on my own.”
He came to Beijing from rural China, but earns little as a chef, doesn’t own any property and is considered a migrant worker in the capital.
For women who have their pick of available men, it means he’s just not good enough.
“I’m only interested in people from Beijing,” one woman tells him at a singles event he attends at a shopping mall.
The response is much the same at the Temple of Heaven Park, where parents gather for a marriage market every Sunday to try and find suitable partners for their children.
“Women only want a man with property and a car. They’re very demanding,” one woman tells him.
“I had a girlfriend, but her parents didn’t think I made enough money,” Li Dongmin tells Marcel. “So they opposed our relationship and we had to split up.”
The imbalance of men and women is a result of China’s One Child Policy, which was introduced by new leader Deng Xiaoping in 1979 to try and slow the country’s population increase.
The introduction of ultrasound in the 1980s meant people could determine the gender of unborn babies. Boys were preferred and girls were aborted on a mass scale.
Although using ultrasound in this way was made illegal in 1994, the UN estimates that there are 66 million fewer women in China than there should be.
At the same shopping centre as the singles event, Rong Na is on the lookout for a suitable woman but she is a highly paid ‘love hunter’ working for a rich single man.
He’s paying a team of 200 people to look for his future wife and he has exacting requirements.
“I’m looking for a woman with an excellent figure… between 1.63 and 1.72 metres tall,” she tells Marcel. “Also our client likes a woman with a pointy chin and full cheeks.”
She approaches shoppers who look like they might fit the bill, and doesn’t hold back on her verdict.
“When I got close up I saw her eyes are droopy and her features aren’t harmoniously balanced,” she says of one potential candidate. “She only has a diploma, so she’s not good enough.”
Women also approach Rong Na through her Diamond Love and Marriage dating website, and are rated A, B or C according to their suitability. Light skinned women score particularly highly.
“That girl’s quite spotty… her skin isn’t that white,” she says while looking through the women’s photos. “She’s probably a B,” concludes her colleague Minmin.
“She’s not bad, she’s got a nice personality, but her skin is a bit too dark and her features are not particularly refined,” Rong Na says of another B-rated candidate.
The search for Miss Right for her client could take over a year and will cost over $180,000.
See the full story of the harsh world facing China’s Lonely Hearts on tonight’s Dateline at 9.30pm on SBS ONE.
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