|
If You Are the One shot to notoriety when it highlighted gold diggers like Ma Nuo. Provided to China Daily China's first successful dating show is under attack for showcasing materialistic starlets and wannabes rather than true love. When Jiangsu Satellite Television came out with a hit show early this year my sixth sense told me it would be axed. If You Are the One is not China's first dating show, but it is the country's first successful one. For each episode, 24 young women stand behind a podium, in control of a light. Half a dozen bachelors are paraded, one for each 10-minute segment. The female contestants turn off the light when they decide to opt out. After several rounds of "showing off his talent", including expositions on love and marriage, the guy gets to choose one of the women who still have their lights on. The bachelor either walks away with one of the women or, more likely, leaves alone. After which another bachelor is brought in. What makes the show spicy is the remarks by the female participants when they comment on the bachelor. As there are 24 of them and not everyone is given equal opportunity to pontificate, they have a tendency to make utterances that will not fall to the cutting floor during editing. One of the women described her marital vision as such: "I'd rather be miserable sitting in a BMW than be happy riding a bicycle." As the bicycle is a mode of transport in China, not a tool of recreation or fitness, what Ma Nuo, a budding model, wants is very clear: wealth over love. She knows money may not bring her happiness, but it is her top priority nonetheless. | 
