Are Asian Men or Women to Blame for Failed Marriages? Chinese Marriage Market II

Chengdu’s Marriage Market

The presenter returns to Chengdu’s People’s Park marriage market to compare five women’s and five men’s anonymous profiles and consider why relationships and marriages fail. He concludes that the profiles focus less on blaming men or women than on the risks and responsibilities involved in marrying into another family.

Common requirements

Many profiles listed preferences for a partner’s height, education, job, appearance, and marital history. Several women specified that a man should own a home or earn at least a certain income. Several men sought women who had never been married and had no children.

Family background was also important to both sides. Many profiles sought a partner from a stable, intact family and described parents as debt-free, financially independent, and supported by work or pensions.

Financial and family pressures

The presenter argues that couples may take on responsibility for parents’ medical costs and other support, particularly when parents lack savings, pensions, or insurance. He connects these pressures to China’s aging population and one-child-family structure, in which a couple may have obligations to four parents as well as their own child.

His central point is that marriage involves two families, not just two individuals. He suggests that family conflict and financial dependence can strain a relationship, helping explain why the profiles repeatedly ask about parents’ stability.

The presenter also offers personal estimates of divorce risk based on family background and argues that dysfunctional relatives can undermine a marriage. These are his opinions, not evidence-based statistics.

Other details

The presenter rents a city bike and rides about 25 km to the market, describing the journey as a good workout.

Notable locations, products, and speaker: Chengdu’s People’s Park marriage market; a rented city bike; the presenter from the Chinese Historian channel.