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From the People’s Daily app.

This is Story in the Story.

"How many people are in your family?" asked the television host. 

"I have two cows and three pigs," the marriage-seeker answered.

This is a clip from “TV Matchmaker,” the first dating show in the Chinese mainland which was aired on Shanxi Television in 1988, aiming to "serve the public" and help singles find their partners. 

From a cold response to a warm welcome, TV Matchmaker was a pioneer in China's dating shows. Over the past 30 years, the country has witnessed a boom in matchmaking events and TV shows.

Under the backdrop of the country's reform and opening-up policy, people who participate in the dating shows no longer bear the pressure of stigmatization. Instead, the platforms provide them with an opportunity to share their inner desires and engage in debates about marriage, love and close relationships. 

However, dating shows have also been accused of conveying wrong values. Meanwhile, the younger Chinese generation seems to still be trapped in a chokehold by the ancient tradition of arranged marriages, as can be seen in these shows, particularly in their latest evolution.

Today's Story in the Story will look at the evolution of a Chinese matchmaking TV program in 40 years of opening-up.

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(Photo: Global Times)

With China home to more than 200 million singles of marriageable age, blind dating still remains one of the most popular ways for Chinese singles to meet potential mates. 

"The reform and opening-up policy freed young people's minds and we began to reject the tradition of arranged marriage,” said Zhang Ji, a 50-year-old resident in Changsha, Hunan Province. “Those who lived in big cities would post their announcements in newspapers.”

In 1979, the first year after the reform and opening-up policy was launched, the first marriage-seeking notice in modern China was published in the Market News under the People's Daily family of publications. 

Though simple and crude, “TV Matchmaker” was the vanguard of China's dating shows. People who participated in the shows were usually poor or widowed.    

“Before we launched the show, we had searched for three months,” Li Zhonglian, the show's producer, said. “However, nobody was willing to come.”

At that time, people were reluctant to publicize their marriage issues on TV. The show later shocked the nation when Li invited a beautiful girl whose appearance attracted a flood of male applicants. However, the female contestant was criticized by her family for “losing face.”

Dating shows received their first boom in 2000 when Hunan Television launched a brand new program “Rose Date,” which involved six pairs of people. 

Unlike “TV Matchmaker,” “Rose Date” featured exquisitely-selected beautiful and talented singles and became a phenomenal hit. 

More than 20 provincial TV programs followed up with their own versions of the show.

“The accelerated mobility of the population and an increasingly open social atmosphere has contributed to the boom of dating shows,” said Liu Yang, a Beijing-based culture commentator. “The shows could meet audience demands about romantic love and fantasies.”

However, Liu noted that due to the changes of people's attitude toward love and marriage, dating shows have become entertaining and full of hype.

One popular example is “If You Are the One,” a show which holds the record of being the highest-rated Chinese dating show. 

The show was launched in 2010 on Jiangsu Television and stirred fierce debate and criticism due to the outspoken female guests. 

Some of the female contestants shot to fame overnight due to their materialistic comments, such as Ma Nuo, who was famous for her line, “I'd rather cry in a BMW than laugh on the backseat of a bicycle.”

“Previously, marriage meant forming a family and giving birth to babies,” Liu said. “Nowadays, the young generation has completely changed their minds. This can be demonstrated by the high divorce rate. Dating shows are more for fun instead of matchmaking.” 

Meanwhile, blind dating in China is not just limited to singles. Many worried parents are also getting involved.

A new ratings success is “New Chinese Dating Time,” a TV dating competition that has parents choose potential spouses for their children. 

“Being filial to one's parents" is one of the most mentioned criteria for future spouses on “New Chinese Dating Time.”

(Produced by Nancy Yan Xu, Raymond Mendoza Lance Crayon and Da Hang. Music by: bensound.com. Text from Global Times and People's Daily.)