It's long been said in China that nothing goes right for a poor couple, but the pressure on young women to search for a wealthy Mr Right is now more intense than ever.
One of this year's most popular television shows, If You Are The One - a prime-time dating show with materialism at its core, broadcast on weekends by Jiangsu Satellite TV - is just one illustration of the phenomenon.
Viewers don't necessarily care if the show's guests fail to find a mate, they just tune in for their blunt language - mostly centred around money - which gives them a chance to tut-tut at declining moral standards, before logging onto the internet to search for more information about them.
And guests don't try to conceal their admiration of wealth. One female guest, Ma Nuo, became an overnight star when she told an unemployed suitor she would prefer to cry in a BMW than smile on a bike. Another guest, Zhu Zhenfang, kept things simple. Her sole requirement for a boyfriend was that he earned at least 200,000 yuan (HK$227,000) a month.
Male guests, abandoning the Chinese tradition of cautiously camouflaging wealth, show off their bank balances, luxury cars and property. Unlike other dating shows, If You Are The One details most of each male guest's income and assets. Such openness has led the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television to order a crackdown on excessive materialism and other 'uncorrected and unhealthy marriage values' in match-making programmes.
A Jiangsu Satellite TV spokeswoman told The Southern Metropolis News on Wednesday that it had not been ordered to cease production of the show, despite heavy speculation about its future following the issuing of the order on June 9.
