Those damn Chinese dating shows - Part 2

The format of the dating show Fei Cheng Wu Rao has evolved over the years. The current format of the show is pretty cheesy, but the original version was even more unpalatable. So much so that it brought upon itself the ire of the Communist party, mandating that the format of the show be changed.

In the original version there was a much greater emphasis on the material wealth of the male contestants who came on the show. Why during the introduction video of every contestant the details of their monthly income would flash up on the screen. Accordingly, many of the male contestants would fill their intro videos of shots of them posing in front of their expensive cars or other flashy assets. After government intervention, gone is the emphasis on material wealth, though it's a sure bet that it still plays in the back of the minds of the female contestants. At the very least, the occupation of each guy is still detailed.

One particulary infamous incident attracted a lot of public criticism. Ma Nuo, one of the more  prominent girls on the show, used to proudly proclaim herself as a money worshiper. During one episode she flatly rejected a guy who wasn't rich enough with the now infamous line: ''I would rather cry in the back of a BMW than sit happily on the back of your bicycle.''




Apparently she copped a lot of criticism on chinese social media websites and talkshows after that, and she scrambled to make up all sorts of excuses to explain her words had been taken out of context. Not that anyone believed her though, since she had a reputation of being cruel, mocking and condescending of any guy who didn't tick her many, many boxes. Since leaving the show she's gone on to do some modelling (most of her work comprising of shoots for FHM-like men's magazines), singing and acting.

In fact, the tone of many of the other girls was also quite mocking and disrespectful of many of the male contestants who weren't made of  prince-charming material. One episode comes to mind when a 31 year old guy who dressed a bit too formally was laughed at and called 'uncle' by most of the girls. All this, coupled with a healthy serving of sexual inuendo quickly attracted the attention of the Communist party, who told the producers to shape-up, or ship-out the show. The party were none too happy with the messages it was sending out to all the viewers.

So in the revamped version gone is any details of income, focus on materialism, or disrespect for the male contestants. And just for good measure, the Communist Party also installed their own psychologist, Huang Han, to join the other relationship expert, Le Jia already on the show. I guess she's there to prevent discussions from heading in the wrong direction and keep everyone in check.

So there are three regular figures on the dating show. The host Meng Fei, and the two relationship experts Le Jia and Huang Han. I don't know why but Meng Fei and Le Jia, who are both guys, always keep their heads shaved. My theory is the bold heads are supposed to symbolize the eunuchs, since they don't take part in the show or court the women.

Once in a while they will have these special episodes where they bring a whole bunch of Chinese ex-nationals, who now work or study abroad, on to the show. Needless to say, the strike rate for these guys seems to be a bit higher than their counterparts who remain in China. I wonder why....

Once in a while they'll also have westerners on the show, and again the strike rate for them seems to be higher than the local guys. Whenever I see a foreign guy on the show they always seem to be a designer of some sort. Perhaps the producers have a template for foreign guys they want on the show? Anyway, most of the guys seem to fit a certain type of character profile. I can't quite describe it, you'd have to watch a few episodes with foreign contestants to get an idea. Most of them seem genuine though, but mind you there are some pretty shady characters on there too.

Finally, I'm loathe to say that the idea for this show was actually taken from the original Australian tv show "Take me out''. I believe it only lasted a season or two a few years back, and even then i don't know how such shite lasted that long. As the title suggests, the show was more about finding a date, rather than finding a partner for the long term. It seemed that all the female contestants were recruited from nightclubs, and every male contestant who came on the show seemed to be a part-time model. The funny thing was, a lot of the contestants seemed to know each other, or had a friend who used to date someone else, so the producers must've recruited all of them from the one night spot.  They also had special episodes where the roles were reversed and all the guys were behind the podiums, though on these episodes it seemed every guy couldn't get a date if their lives depended on it.