Men in China! Marriage not for You?
Spare a thought for Mark Zhang. A self proclaimed man of “serious boyfriend material” attributes. Who lives in Beijing. He used to have a lovely life, girlfriend…
Mark Zhang - Serious Boyfriend Material
He knew what to order at an Italian restaurant. He could mix a tasty margarita. And he always volunteered to carry his girlfriend’s handbag. Then came the deal breaker. Zhang, a 28-year-old language tutor and interpreter, couldn’t afford an apartment in the capital’s scorching property market. Rather than waste any more time, his girlfriend of more than two years dumped him. La Times
Zhang’s misfortune is not uncommon. China’s housing boom has created a woefully frustrated class of bachelors.
Home prices in major cities including Beijing and Shanghai have easily doubled over the last year as families and investors rush to grab a piece of the Chinese dream. A typical 1,000-square-foot, two-bedroom, one-bath apartment in the capital now costs about $274,000. That’s 22 times the average annual income of a Beijing resident. Bare in mind the sheer amount of savings needed for such a financial investment and your looking at a fairly ‘well-to-do’ chap.
Unlike in the United States, where home buying traditionally takes place after marriage, owning a place in China has recently become a prerequisite for tying the knot. Experts said securing an apartment in this market signals that a man is successful, family-oriented and able to weather challenging financial circumstances. Put succinctly, home-ownership has become the ultimate symbol of virility in today’s China.
“A man is not a man if he doesn’t own a house,Marriage is becoming more and more materialistic. This is a huge change in Chinese society. No matter how confident a woman is, she will lose face if her boyfriend or husband doesn’t have a house.”
According to the report dating websites across China are awash with women ‘stipulating’ a prerequisite for marriage is a residence and a ‘set of wheels in tow’.
Now my own opinions towards marriage are slightly jaded and of course perhaps one day I might want to get married, but frankly I can’t see any benefit to shacking up with someone so obsessed with the irrelevant that they miss entirely the point of marriage. Now because I’m fundamentally lazy and you are currently reading something on the internet, you can go look up the point of marriage.
Either way my heart goes to Mark Zhang, lets hope one day he will find a women who doesn’t care that he is clearly really poor… he he!
