Love in the Internet era of Yangcheng youth: online and offline efforts to pursue high-quality marriage

China News Service Guangzhou, May 20 Title: Love in the Internet Era of Yangcheng Youth: Online and Offline Efforts to Pursue High-Quality Marriage

Written by Fang Weibin and Wang Jian

With the change of the times, the concept of marriage and love of the younger generation in China has changed. Under the Internet, May 20 ("520" harmonic "I love you") set off a wave of marriage licenses. Online, couples send red envelopes containing the "520" number to each other, and various sweets are posted in the circle of friends; offline, shopping malls, restaurants, movie theaters, and flower shops are in hot business.

In the lively Beijing Road Commercial Pedestrian Street in Guangzhou, there is a marriage agency with a plaque that reads "The First Marriage Agency in New China". Hu Zhanhong, director of the Guangzhou Youth Culture Palace Youth Marriage Service Research Center, told China News Agency that the Guangzhou Youth Marriage Agency was established in 1982, which was the first marriage agency sponsored by the government in Chinese mainland at that time. In 2014, due to institutional reform and adjustment, the marriage agency was renamed as the Youth Marriage Service Research Center.

In the past 40 years, it has witnessed the changes in marriage and love of young people in Guangzhou. Hu Zhanhong frankly said that in recent years, the marriage age of young people in Guangzhou has been postponed, and men and women have generally postponed it to after the age of 30. The reason is that Hu Zhanhong believes that the young generation in Guangzhou has obtained a lot of information in the Internet age, they have the courage to accept new things, and different concepts of marriage have emerged, which is in strong contrast with their parents' generation.

The previous generation believed that marriage was the only way in life, and Guangzhou Tianhe Park became a place for parents to hug and kiss for their children. It is ranked alongside Beijing Ditan Park and Shanghai People's Park as the three well-known blind dates in Chinese mainland. Every weekend, in the center of Tianhe Park, you can often see rows of colorful umbrellas, umbrellas on the surface of a blind date resume, and behind the umbrella stands a broken heart of "parents".

On the day of the reporter's visit, after browsing the resume of the blind date in the park, it was found that doctors, teachers, and civil servants were the most popular, and age, education, height, income, and caravan situation became the key content. "The worst is to graduate from a bachelor's degree, and it is best to have a house and a car," Ms. Wang, a citizen, told reporters. On the same day, her resume attracted a parent, the two sides of the material conditions are equal, after exchanging photos of their children, decided to arrange a blind date.

"It is inevitable to put forward certain material conditions, but the youth of Guangzhou are still relatively pragmatic." Hu Zhanhong thinks. Judging from what he understands, the young people in Guangzhou are still strongly willing to marry, and many young people are willing to participate in the blind date bureau arranged by their parents, in addition to the material conditions, the spiritual level requirements are getting higher and higher.

In Tianhe Park, there are also young people who take the initiative to go on blind dates. "I work as an English teacher in Guangzhou and want to find an outgoing girlfriend." Qin Sheng (pseudonym) recommended himself to passers-by. Although his blind date resume has certain material requirements for the woman, personality and character have become the most important parts of him.

Hu Zhanhong pointed out that in the Internet era, blind dates are not difficult, and offline blind dates are still the way with the highest success rate. Online dating, the degree of emotional vulnerability, still need to work together online and offline, more face-to-face communication.

Nowadays, among young people in Guangzhou, the popular script has become a new way of offline blind date. Every weekend, the script killing game shop has become a good place for Mr. Wang, a citizen. He told reporters that the script generally kills at least 5 people, and the player plays the role in the script, interacts and exchanges clues around the plot, and jointly reveals the secret. In this process, because the script requires constant communication among the participants, in this mode, he makes a lot of new friends, which becomes an alternative way for him to find love. Mr. Wang said that compared with the virtual Internet, offline communication is more reliable, he is not afraid of late marriage, afraid of not finding a suitable object to rush to marry but cause trouble.

Hu Zhanhong believes that contemporary young people should establish a correct view of love, marriage and family, and finding an object is a kind of happiness, but finding the wrong object, how to better separate, that is also a kind of happiness. (End)

Source: China News Network