Society

Log on to shop for Mr. Right

By Cheng Anqi (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-04-01 20:04

In a real-life date, men are generally expected to take the first initiative, but a new networking website turns the table.

It is running the men-selling business and becoming popular among girls born after 1980s.

51taonan.com (literally means I want a Mr. Right) flagging its slogan We buy romance not men is thought to be a feminism-oriented website. It is built like an online shopping bazaar, naming women as buyer/seller and men as items.

Women play a dominant role when picking an item. They click them into shopping trolleys, put them on sale or even offer them to others if not satisfied.

Most buyers/sellers say that they are addicted to the feel of being overcritical to their "products" and usually have more than one article at hand.

"I registered on the site just for fun weeks ago, and I find that it is relaxing to pick and choose," says a single online buyer with the alias "blooming season". "I browse their photos and background at a time to select satisfactory guys. However, it will be awkward to gaze at him or ask about his family and education background on a real blind date."

Another netizen dubbed "perfume" echoes the idea. "People tend to see each other through rose-colored spectacles in a real blind date, caring about job experience and how much money you've earned rather than personality. But on the webstore, I chat online with boys and then have a real date if we hit it off."

According to Xia Xueluan, sociologist from Peking University, unlike their parents, who often had marriages arranged by their parents, the "after 80s" generation has grown accustomed to online dating which has bloomed in recent years, and has enjoyed more freedom in choosing whom to love and whom to marry.

"But this generation has also found itself plagued by unstable relationships that many times end in break ups," says Xia, who warn people not to take the site as a matchmaker seriously, but as entertainment.