China's Love Hunters Our World

their grasp. New Zealand beat them 20`18. I'll be back at ten. Now on

BBC News, it's time for Our World. China, the middle kingdom. It's both

the Asian superpower and the world's biggest economy. But this country is

running low on a vital commodity. Women. Too many men here. Too few

girls. Decades of sex selective abortions have led to a dramatic

gender imbalance. If they can tell it is not a boy early enough, they

will abort the foetus. And by the end of the the decade, China will

have 24 million more males than females. This is a country where it

is increasingly unlikely that millions of of bachelors will ever

get married. The richest men are hiring professionals to hunt girls

down. But how does the average Chinese man go about finding the

right one? There is every chance she never even existed in the first

place. Love is all around for this couple.

And this one. And this one. It might look a bit like the nuptial conveyor

belt, but for many young Chinese, a wedding like this is an unattainable

dream. Blue Melody Manor Park is a little corner of the South of France

in the suburbs of Beijing. After this ceremony, the bride will change

out of the white wedding dress into a traditional Chinese one for the

banquet. Increasingly, brides and their families expect nothing less

than an expensive spectacle like this. China's economic rise has

lifted millions out of poverty, but the the boom has also put marriage

beyond some men's reach. In the old days, everybody expected to get

hitched. China, where, in the interests of the economy, weddings

take place en masse. The brides wear inexpensive gowns of a simple

material. And later, in the early days of the People's Republic,

weddings were also modest. As were the groom's presents. Brides require

the three rounds, a watch, a sewing machine and a bicycle. Then it was a

fridge, TV and and a washing machine. Now, a car, salary and real

estate. What about love? Not a priority if you listen to the

marriage expert at the state`sponsored China Women's

Federation. And parents certainly do get involved. Pairing people off was

once the work of traditional matchmakers, but now mums and dads

are playing Cupid. This might look like a protest by families of young

people disappeared in a political crackdown, but the problem here

isn't that the children are missing. It is that they are still around.

Every weekend, parks like this one fill with anxious parents hawking

their children's nuptial CVs. Many look embarrassed and some are here

without their children's knowledge. But not this lady. Why do you think

your son is having trouble finding a wife? On top of that, they come from

distant provinces and have no official right to live in the

capital. This woman's son, a young engineer, is willing to talk. Why do

you think it is difficult to find a woman to marry? You are good`looking

and and have a good job. But no place to live is just one of

many problems for would`be grooms. Another is quite simply a critical

shortage of women. Author and journalist Mara Hvistendahl has been

tracking this demographic time bomb for several years. Today we are

looking at tens of millions of surplus men, men who do not have a

female counterpart in the population. Sex selection is a

problem that has been going on for decades, so at this point, many

areas of China have been touched by it. In the late '70s, the Chinese

government introduced the so`called one child policy, designed to curb

population growth. But it backfired. If a family really want to have a

boy, then they start to select. We call it prenatal sex selection. They

try to get pregnant with a boy, make sure the newborn is a boy. If it's

not a boy? If they can tell it's not a boy and it's early enough, they

will abort the foetus. This is a very general practice. In Chinese

culture, male children have always been more prized. In extreme cases,

especially in the villages, female infanticide was also practised. Some

people say by the end of this decade there will be 24 million. Up to 30

million. What is clear is that there will be a serious problem with a lot

of leftover men. Nowhere more so than in the countryside. This is a

village near the border with Vietnam. It is a world away from

China's crowded megacities. Most Chinese men face a double burden

when they want to get married. The rising financial problems and the

shortage of women. But they have it easy compared to farmers in the

poorest part of the country. In this village, there are 60 bachelors.

Some have given up all hope of getting married. These men are both

unmarried. Across China, there are more and more villages like theirs.

They They call these men bare branches, because because they can't

continue the family tree. Today they are picking dragon fruit. Here, on

top of poverty, and the nationwide problem of gender imbalance, men are

confronted with a regional problem. Mass migration.

problem of gender imbalance, men are confronted with

Marriage is traditionally the symbol of maturity in China. Unmarried men

are treated like boys who have yet to come of age, no matter how old

they actually are. The pressure on his friend and

fellow bachelor is even more intense. His family spent years of

their hard earned savings on this huge new house in the modern part of

the the village for him to move into with his wife. There is not much

left over for furniture, but that hardly matters, because there is no

wife and no children. This is a family home with no family.

How badly would you like to have children? Is that important for you?

He's going home to help with the harvest. But usually, these lads

help construct in big skyscrapers in the cities.

help construct in big skyscrapers It's hard, sweaty and dangerous on

Chinese building sites and they are hardly likely to catch the eye of a

girl and they are working 20 storeys in the air.

In the past decade, 300 million people have poured into the cities

to look for work. And for love. But that can prove elusive. How do you

find yourself a soul mate in a city the size of this one? This is your

headquarters? Yes. Gong Haiyan was a student from a remote village. She

moved to Shangha and got into a university. But she had no love

life. She joined a dating site. When she got replies, she asked for money

back. `` got no replies. Her website is called Beautiful Destiny. It's

proved a hit. She is now known as China's top matchmaker. These

numbers keep increasing. Her site has almost 100 million users, and

she is now personally worth $45 million. And she found herself a

husband too, although she made him take an IQ test before their first

date. Here are the three most important things we need to know

about about you, height, education and salary. How tall are you? About

170, I think. Matchmaking in China has an illustrious 2000`year`old

history, and in the old days, it might be limited to a handful of

families. Now that the old networks are breaking down, how on earth you

even begin the search? One of the employees here is helping me upload

my my profile. What does this box do? Self`description. I should say

that I'm adventurous and get bored quite easily. I need a man who is

organised. I quite like the idea of a romantic man, too. Next up,

describing the shape of your face. There are options. Round,

rectangular, long, or sunflower seed. Like a sunflower seed? Yes. Or

egg`shaped. Egg`shaped. Triangle. Triangle`shaped? What do you think I

am? Egg`shaped. Egg`shaped. OK, let's go with that. Sadly, the

prospects for ladies like me with egg`shaped faces were not quite what

I had hoped for. Time to go offline. This speed`dating event is in an

industrial city in the Pearl River Delta, the workshop of the world,

where money reigns supreme. A mass`produced mercantile approach

seems to have infected the mating game, too.

These are the rules. If the girl accepts the red rose, the man is

allowed to sit down and talk to her. The first thing people do when they

come to this match`making event is post their profile on the wall. You

can see their candidate number, their age, their height, which is

absolutely crucial in China, and their education. This guy has been

to a university. He's a CEO. This man next to him is a high school

leaver. They also have room for a personal statement. This guy, an

engineer, says, "I want to hold your hand". This guy says, "I want to

find the right umbrella. If I cannot find it, I'd rather stay in the rain

forever". Unfortunately, in China these days, quite a few men may stay

damp for some time to come. This man is a case in point. It's

the third time he has been to this event.

The women are not easily pleased and even this investment banker from

Taiwan says he is finding it tough going. I find too many men here. Too

many men? Too few girls. I have seen some very beautiful girls. That is

probably your view, not mine. Are you quite fussy? I'm not fussy.

Trust me, my last girlfriend was a dog. Oh, dear. And we were getting

on so well. But it is all a bit humiliating and

time`consuming. That is why China's wealthiest bachelors contract out

the search for a spouse. They employ a love hunter. THEME FROM JAWS

PLAYS. We are going shopping but not for clothes. For girls. Such is the

working day for the employees of Shanghai's Diamond Bachelors Agency.

Show me the sort of girl you're looking for. Maybe that yellow one

is OK. That girl in the little shorts?

If Peng Tai finds his richest clients a Miss Right, he could earn

tens of thousands of dollars. But as his boss explains these billionaires

are picky. One sent love hunters to nine separate cities to trawl

through 10,000 girls. Let's say the love hunters have

found a billionaire a promising candidate. She might look the part

but can she really cut it as a member of China's new moneyed elite?

How does Miss Good Enough become Mrs Right? One solution is to study

here, the Happy College of the Good Wife.

Today, these aspiring trophy wives are role`playing. How to spread your

love diplomatically between your baby and your husband.

Love hunters, speed`daters, good wives colleges. It might seem a bit

wacky but this is no laughing matter. China is moving forwards at

an astonishing rate but no amount of material development can compensate

for the shortage of young women in this country.

It's already causing trouble and there will be more to come.

These days, it's really hard to find a girl in China. So that causes more

social problems because with a lot of bachelors... A lot of single

men... There are social problems like rape or sexual harassment

everywhere. Really? And you think that's because of the number of men

compared to women? I think so. I think so. The shortage is leading

some to take desperate measures. I heard that some men in bachelor

villagers went to other provinces or even to Vietnam to find a wife. Have

you thought about that? Why not? And there are more problems around

the corner. In China, state and private pensions are nonexistent for

most people. Instead, children are expected to look after their parents

when they get old. But who will care for China's tens

of millions of leftover men in their dotage?

There's discussions and there's research but, actually, I think that

this is something we have never encountered before. We do not know

what will happen. When they get old, I think that the society, the

community, needs to think about how to take care of them because they

don't have family to take care of them, they do not have children. Of

course, for the moneyed classes, this is less of an issue.

Back on the streets of Shanghai, love hunter Peng Tai is closing in

for the kill. THEME FROM JAWS PLAYS.

In a penthouse somewhere above the city, a millionaire or billionaire

will get the chance to peruse the fruits of Peng's labours.

At one extreme of this divided and increasingly unequal society, men

can pick and choose their mates. At the other end, back in the bachelor

villages, there is no choice at all. Modern China is a ruthlessly

competitive place and many men are alone. But some are more alone than

others. If marriage is a building block of social stability, will the

shortage of brides undermine this country's future?