Education World

Wan Guoying, 50, who comes from Jiangxi province, can’t understand why her daughter, Xiong Ye, 24, an office worker in Beijing, would rather stay indoors at the weekend than have fun outside.

“She works from Monday to Friday. I want her to make the best of the two days left to socialize, and most importantly, to find a boyfriend,” Wan says.

She said in their native small town, young people hang out with each other after work and many children of her friends and colleagues there, who are of the same age as Xiong, are married and have children.

“I am jealous, and I feel the pressure. I don’t know why my daughter is still single in a big city where there are thousands of eligible men. My husband and I are very anxious about her,” she says.

Wan’s concern exemplifies the large colony of parents, whose intense involvement in the love affairs of their only children has become a conspicuous phenomenon.

In populous metropolises like Beijing, parents regularly gather in parks or outside the venues of matchmaking parties. They hold paperboards carrying their children’s information, and set up prospective dates for them.