Jessica Gu felt bitterly disappointed after paying $4,000 to a matchmaking agency that did not find her a partner.<\/p>\n
What frustrated Ms Gu more was when one matchmaker told her love was not necessary for a marriage.<\/p>\n
“I’m not that desperate for marriage but my family are concerned,” said Ms Gu, explaining why she opted to use the service.<\/p>\n
Many women like Ms Gu are willing to pay a premium for help finding a partner in Australia where there are more women from China than men.<\/p>\n
However, Ms Gu, who is originally from China and has lived in Sydney for almost a decade, warned women looking for love to be careful.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Many women hope to find a boyfriend and ultimately a husband when they join matchmaking services. (Reuters: Aly Song)<\/p>\n
She said she was promised lots of good, potential male partners before joining Chinese matchmaking platform.<\/p>\n
The service also promoted many success stories of couples finding love.<\/p>\n
But the 35-year-old said those claims didn’t match her experience.<\/p>\n
“They only introduced seven guys to me over the entire year and only one ticked my boxes,” she said.<\/p>\n
“After three or four dates, the guy asked me when I was planning to get married. I was shocked!”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Marriage rates in China are declining but the matchmaking business remains popular.\u00a0 (Reuters: China Daily\/File)<\/p>\n
When Ms Gu told the agency this relationship wouldn’t work out, she said the matchmaker tried hard to get her to continue dating the man.<\/p>\n
Ms Gu claimed the matchmaker told her that couples did not need common interests.<\/p>\n
“They said: ‘Couples can have separate daily lives, but at least after work, they can have someone to eat dinner with’.”<\/p>\n
“That’s absolute nonsense,” Ms Gu said.<\/p>\n
Tough times for China’s wedding industry<\/a><\/p>\n A plunge in the number of Chinese couples willing to tie the knot is hurting the marriage industry and\u00a0worrying officials trying to revive marriage\u00a0and birth\u00a0rates.<\/p>\n She said she might as well find herself a roommate.<\/p>\n “Why marry at all?”<\/p>\n Ms Gu also became frustrated when the agency posted about one of her first dates on social media.<\/p>\n She said she and the man had told the agency they got a “good impression” and “could stay in contact”.<\/p>\n But Ms Gu said the agency posted the interaction on social media and claimed it was a successful match.<\/p>\n “It’s just false marketing.”<\/p>\n Shared culture helps intimacy Some women have found matchmaking platforms helpful to find a husband. (Supplied: Jeremy Wong)<\/p>\n Traditionally in China, marriages were arranged by parents and sealed by a matchmaker.\u00a0<\/p>\n While today arranged marriages don’t happen as much, matchmaking agencies remain popular.<\/p>\n However, on Chinese social media platform RedNote, posts warning about Chinese matchmaking services in Australia are common.\u00a0<\/p>\n Some accuse agencies of advertising the profiles of wealthy male candidates described as “perfect” who aren’t available even after clients pay expensive membership fees.<\/p>\n Many women posted about their matchmaking experiences on RedNote, known in China as Xiaohongshu. (Reuters: Illustration by Dado Ruvic)<\/p>\n Other posts warn that matchmakers are unresponsive and use emotional manipulation, telling clients they are not good enough for better matches.<\/p>\n Ayla Yang is operations director at Chinese diaspora matchmaking agency, UR True Love, which is not one of the services women interviewed for this story complained about.<\/p>\n Ms Yang said misconduct in the industry stemmed from a lack of regulation.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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