A survey on Chinese people’s attitude towards dating and marriage shed interesting light on why the number of leftover men and women keeps growing and what frustrates their efforts of finding the right match.   

The survey, carried out by the China’s first  real-name online matchmaking service baihe.com, received over 50,000 valid responses from all over China. Among them, about 70 percent are unmarried and over half were born in the 1980s. The post-1980s generation faces massive pressure of becoming one of the leftovers, a term deemed by the western media as derogatory to educated women who remain single over the age of 27.

1. The top three reasons for being a single are: a negative attitude; having been emotionally hurt; and ignorance about how to get along with a partner.

Women are more prone to get tangled and frustrated in a relationship while one third of men stay single because they can’t understand women.

2. Thirty is the age when single men would lower their requirements a bit in the hope of getting married soon while nearly 40 percent of women would stick to their requirements no matter how old they get.

3. Michael Jackson is screened out. People working in the showbiz and entertainment industry are the least popular. Besides, men are not fond of flight attendants and tour guides while women dislike farmers and freelancers.

To sum up, men are supposed to have steady income and women should better have a less transient job. Stability matters the most. As many as 77 percent of women require that their boyfriend’s salary should be double their own income. .

4. Gamophobia. Ninety percent of the singles believe it is difficult to find someone to get married and women find it even harder than men.

According to the survey, over 40 percent of women admitted that they suffer from gamophobia given the fact that the nationwide divorce rate has kept rising for seven consecutive years. Men are concerned about buying a house whereas women think domestic violence and  mistresses are what thwarted their wedding plans.

5. Wealth management is the biggest problem that strains the marital relationships.
Over half of the surveyed women expect that their husbands should hand in the bank card, which is invariably disapproved by men. More women than men would like to have a secret stash of money.

6. Over 60 percent of women are unwilling to live with in-laws, thinking a volatile  relationship with their mother-in-law would put stress on their married life.  But over half of the male respondents said wife and in-law ties would not have much impact.

7. Marriage is discriminating. An overwhelming number of people are opposed to marry non-natives. Locals favor locals.