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48CHINA TODAYEVERY Saturday and Sunday eve-ning on Jiangsu Satellite Televi-sion, a jury of 24 single young women fi r e questions at a bach-elor and make comments on his answersbefore pressing a button to either vote himoff the show, or keep him. The lucky survi-vors of the ordeal are rewarded with theirchoice of a girl from the panel for a date.The “jurors” and “defendants” are chic,brilliant, outspoken, and often, insanelybrazen. Their conversations bear a healthydose of teasing, taunting and sarcasm, and are spiced up with their witty quips. Thesuave host and celebrity guests chime in as well.If Y ou Are the One surpassed all reality shows in the nation within two months of its debut in January 2010, securing the pro-gram the fi r st or second slot in popularity ratings for 12 weeks in arow. By the June 6 episode its host proudly announced they’d re-ceived 160,000 to 170,000 applications from bachelors the week prior. The reception is just as wild backstage. The program’s fan club on , the leading search engine in China, has gained over one million memberships. But is what we are watch-ing real or feigned, and even so, does it matter?Blind Date Still a Good StoryThe buzz about If Y ou A re the One has sparked off a fresh round of blind dating shows. Now jostling for audience share are the provincial channels of Shandong, Hunan, Zhejiang, Guangdong and Anhui, as well as the Shanghai-based Dragon TV . Among them, Take Me Out on Hunan Satellite TV is believed to be the original show’s strongest rival. Liu Lei, the show’s producer, was the brains behind Date of Rose in 1998, which was modeled on a popular blind dating show in Taiwan. She eventually iced the show in 2006 with the understanding that its polite and insipid exchanges (and almost foregone conclusion that contestants will have paired up during its one-hour run) no longer appealed to youth of the time.Her Take Me Out, launched at the end of 2009, is branded as a mate-fi n ding sport for the trendy. In each episode 20 girls and ten boys grill each other on various topics that engage youngminds. It soon won millions of view-ers around the nation. But its star waseclipsed with the commencement of If Y our Are the One, which features par-ticipants of greater audacity willing to engage in more pointed interrogation. Within weeks If Y ou Are the One had spawned contentious debate in every corner of the nation. “I watch it on TV and online, and have never missed an episode,” said Wang Na, a securities company clerk. Many of her colleagues are also zeal-ots, and some are unmarried and itch-ing to appear on the program. “Though most participants leave the stage failing to pair-off, it is fun to watch their debates. Some of the girls are really daring in their speeches.”Controversy Sells Frankness or cheekiness, cheers or boos make TV shows stir-ring. Contestant-judge Ma Nuo, a 22-year-old model from Bei-jing, best represents If Y ou Are the One. When asked by a young man if she would like to ride with him on his bike, the charm-ing young lady, without a blink, jeered: “I would rather cry ina BMW.” Instantly a fl ood of responses either scolded her as amoney worshiper or defended her truthfulness, and swept across media of all kinds. Her story was even told on the other side of the Paci fi c , in USA Today. Ma made other acid remarks, understand-ably inviting the abhorrence of contestants and audiences in later episodes. Once she left the room in tears under an intense volley of similarly caustic derision by 28-year-old contestant Luo Lei; waves of applause instantly broke out in the auditorium and Mr. Luo became an overnight hero.Another controversial fi g ure is Liu Y unchao, son of a super rich family who claimed to have assets of RMB six million and three sports cars to his name. He turned to the camera and said: “Does Ma Nuo still want to cry in a BMW? Do it in mine.” Thereafter referred to in on-line chats as “the BMW boy,” he was immediately dismissed as the “most bumptious of rich heirs.”The sensational presence of If Y ou Are the One in several me-dia is stoking the TV show’s momentum. However, as more andTV Dating Programs:Love and Marriage in a Consumer SocietyBy staff reporter ZHANG MANRate your love; love your ratings.49August 2010more contestants seem over eager to challenge traditional values and morals on air, and the program grows melodramatic, suspi-cions arise about the authenticity of this reality show. Skepticism turns out not to be groundless, as several contestants were found to be lying about their identities.The deluge of dating shows and the controversy they stir up have alarmed the State Administration of Radio, Film and Televi-sion, which recently released two warnings about the excesses of such programs, especially their tendency to manipulate the game and slip into vulgarity.Quest for the Right One EternalDespite the antics, these TV dating programs by and large mirror Chinese people’s attitudes toward love and marriage in an age of transition and rampant consumerism, when traditional values are disputed and individualism admired. Romance is a sure magnet for TV viewers, particularly in a nation that has 180 million singles of marriageable age. Both If Y ou Are the One and Take Me Out are produced in partnership with China’s leading dating websites: respectively , the biggest of its kind in China, and , whose registered members exceed 25 million. Many contestants in the two programs hold member-ships on both websites.In a time when communication technology is increasing con-tact at exponential rates, it is baf fl ing that the search for marriage partners has become harder rather than easier. This is more no-ticeable in bigger cities like Beijing and Shanghai. Last August organized its second dating party at the Temple of Earth in Beijing, and received over 6,000 registrations in two days. In many parks in Beijing there are regular gatherings of parents who exchange information on their adult children in the hope of fi n ding potential spouses for them.Some blame the growing gender imbalance for narrowing their chances of meeting Mr. or Miss Right. In 2009 there were 119.45 male newborns for every 100 females, way above the normal ratio of 105. In fact more factors have to be investigated regarding this issue.Under the crushing social pressure to make their livelihoods and spurred by personal career ambitions, many young people have little time to get to know peers who are not part of their company or family circle. At the same time they are more de-manding of their potential mates and have a stronger sense of self. This is a generation whose perceptions of, and expectations for, the bond between man and woman are quite disparate from their parents’ and grandparents’. They are also very vocal in de-fending their beliefs and values.Today’s TV dating programs resonate with the differences and exacerbate the clash between generations. While giving par-ticipants a chance to beckon to their elusive love in front of tens of millions of viewers, they actually set the stage for a long and broad debate on our understanding of love, marriage, and life in general. But the tastes of TV audiences shift, and public opinion can be fi c kle, as seen in the fall of The One’s predecessors. Like。