“Marriage Hunting”—A New Fador A Way to Happiness?

By Zhao Ningning

“Marriage Hunting” is a new buzzword for media and singleyouths which is derived from The Era of Marriage Hunting, the most popular bookin Japan in which the authors urge young singles to actively seek a spouse butnot sitting back and waiting for his/her partner’s coming. “Marriage Hunting”means seeking a spouse or “hunting” a marriage through speedy dating parties oractivities organized by marriage consultants or matchmaking companies.Nowadays, “Marriage Hunting” is becoming a fad among those with high talent,strong work ethic and narrow social network, especially for “white collar” and“gold collar” , “marriage hunting” is regarded as an efficient way to marriage.

A survey on professionals’ attitude towards “MarriageHunting” conducted by a well-known HR website has shown that over 60 percent ofthose surveyed agree with “marriage hunting”. The figure is even higher amongsingle people surveyed: 70 percent of single people are eager to bid farewellto the single life through “marriage hunting” and are even willing to spend afortune on that. Why is “marriage hunting” so popular among modern singles? Thesocial developments and changes have altered people’s lifestyles, socialexpectations, attitudes towards marriage, which caused the traditional matchmakingstyle to fade away and “marriage hunting” to be popularized.

Firstly traditional way to arrange marriages typicallyorganized in a formal setting by the parents or close family members, ormeddlesome aunts hasn't worked for modern youths. “Marriage hunting” is morefavorable for those who are high-talented, narrow-social and engaged themselvesto jobs.

Secondly, “Marriage hunting”, in some way, is executed in asimilar manner as job hunting. The “hunter” has to prepare his/her resume, wearthe right suits that makes him/her look professional, present the best selfamong the candidates. In some young persons’ views, “marriage hunting” is aneffective way for them to choose the best one as their Mr. or Mrs. Right.

Thirdly, the modern social life with high-efficiency,severe-competition and diversified-life styles make more and more young peoplemarriageable devote themselves to their jobs. And the strong work ethic andworking hours have been squeezing their social time. It’s become harder andharder for young people to get married as before, so the marriage has becomesomething to be pursued with enough strategy and planning which is the mainfactor causing more and more “white collar” and “gold collar” join the army of“marriage hunters”.

Finally, for most of young persons, after joining force of“white collar” or “gold collar”, the life is not as colorful as imagined, thespare time is squeezed by the traveling to and from work, the amount of timeleft for them to find love is decreasing; the social network is becomingnarrower, even with high-talent, great success in career, it is impossible forthem to find the right person in the small social circle. Comparatively,“marriage hunting” makes the significantly higher success rate at searching thepartner than that of traditional matchmaking activities.

    More and moreyoung people marriageable choose their spouses or partners through “marriagehunting”, however, is it true that “marriage hunting” is a way to thehappiness? Or is it just a fad among single youths and media?

As it always has, the definition of marriage is changing asthe times and societies change. In modern society, from the legal prospective,the dictionary defines marriage as “the state of being united to a person tothe opposite sex as husband or wife in a legal, consensual, and contractualrelationship recognized and sanctioned by and dissolvable only by law.” So“marriage” is a voluntary legal union of a man and woman as husband and wife.It is believed that marriage should be entered into freely on the basis ofequality, trust and respect mutually which are the essentials to a happy andpermanent marriage.

“The divorce rate is much lower in the couples who spendmore time on dating than that in those who spend less time on dating beforemarriage”, according to Mr. Paulin Straughan, the sociologist and assistantprofessor of the National University of Singapore. Some singles think it is thehigh-efficient and severe-competitive society who deprived them of the time andopportunities for searching for their partners, and “marriage hunting” is theirlast choice even they have to pay more for the chances provided by the marriageconsultants or the matchmaking companies. “Hunting” a partner strategicallythrough speedy dating parties or activities organized by marriage consultantsor matchmaking companies makes “marriage” be a task for marriageable singles tocomplete because it seems to conceal the romantic ideal and essential from“marriage”. However, “Marriage hunting” seems to have a significantly highersuccess rate than that of ordinary matchmaking activities.

Occurrence of any new thing will invite different attitudes,so is “Marriage hunting”. Some people are eager to bid farewell to their singlelife through “marriage hunting” and are even willing to spend a fortune on theprocess which bring a broad and bright market for “marriage hunting”. Those whoare disapproved of “marriage hunting” refuse to get personal happiness with apurpose, in their views, it’s just a new fad for singles. Hunting marriage withmoney can only get material comforts but without learning each other’spersonalities and getting married for love.

With the increasing number of singles choosing and acceptingthe “marriage hunting”，Much attention should be paid when youintend to search for your spouse by “marriage hunting”

On one hand, be alert to the trap on “marriage hunting”. Itis a profitable business for the marriage consultants and matchmaking companiesto offer the services for the marriageable singles since the service fee for“hunting” a marriage ranges from 20,000 to 30,000 RMB, some of witch can evenexceed 100,000RMB. With the high profitability, “marriage hunting” is usuallyused to accumulate wealth by some illegal marriage consultants or matchmakingcompanies. It is vital for singles searching partner to be alert to the trap on“marriage hunting”.

On the other hand, getting enough knowledge on each other,building mutual trust and respect before marriage. In many cases involved ininstant marriage, the husband or the wife apply for the divorce due to thedifference in tempers, life styles or lack in knowing each other beforemarriage. Comparatively speaking, couples with “instant marriage” face a higherrisk of divorce. So the marriage “hunter” shall get enough knowledge about thebeing partner besides his or her general conditions like age, height,appearance, education and family background. Or the hardship in marriage willbe experienced in the future life.

                                          (Byattorney Zhao Ningning)

[All Rights Reserved]