Contextual Essay

When it comes to my digital artefact I explored something rather new to myself and to Australia. In early 2018 a brand new TV show in China was released and it’s called Chinese dating with the parents. Basically single hopefuls reach out to famed transgender host Jin Xing for help with their love problems, but there is a catch to this show. Any potential partners must go through an intensive and grueling interrogation with the contestant’s parent in order to proceed to the next stage in the show.

 

This is a real modern romance dilemma with a spin as love can be right around the corner, but the potential partners must charm the parents first. Contestants will have to put their faith in their parents hands and believe that their parents will find their one.

 

I’ve decided to start from the beginning and head straight to episode one, season one. I’ll be reviewing each candidate and their methods, along with live tweeting this experience. You can find the hash tag #ChineseDatingWithTheParents #BCM320 and each candidate will have their own hash tag #bachie1 followed by #bachie2 and #bachie3. Each bachie will have their own blog, exploring the depth of this crazy love show.

 

Due to not having seen this show before I thought I would explore my own personal experience with Chinese dating with the parents, discovering a completely different culture, yet the result weren’t as diverse as I thought. I was expecting parents to throw around jobs in order to get their daughters the date, I mean the parents were rather straight forward but I guess they want to find their daughter the right guy.

 

One thing I did notice was that this show jumped straight to the conclusion of marriage. Parents were asking the bachie questions like why do you want to get married? And how will you treat my daughter as your life? I don’t think we would jump to this conclusion in Australia as not all couples wants to get married.

Blog post 2: Bachie One

 

6 girls are all awaiting in this room, with view of the candidate and audio to hear what he has to say. All the girls are cheering to see the first bachelor that is up for grasp. As he walks through the set the girls jump up and down saying, “he’s so handsome”, yet my first thought is what is wrong with him?

Oh and guess what, he’s a dancer; he just has to show off those sick moves in slow motion I may add. After his little spin, he waves to all the parents. Some of the parents seem swooned over him yet others could not be interested. After all the waves and dance moves he introduces himself. He’s a 23-year-old figure skater coach that is seeking his love.

 

After clarifying that the move he did was a spin we head straight into the first stage of this game. The parents are allowed to ask or tell him anything without deciding if they want to accept or reject him. I believe every mother here is a cougar as they tell him how cool is he and want to give him hugs. That is until parents number 6 ask him a brutal question that takes him off guard, ‘you are so young, why are you in such a hurry to find a girlfriend?’ Everyone in the crowd giggles while the girl is saying why, he responds with my parents are worried I won’t find anyone. Yet this answer is not good enough for parent’s number 6 so she just keeps hammering him with questions he can’t answer. So the host moves along straight away.

The first video is played in black and white to create a dramatic effect. The first bachie just explains that has skated his whole life, which has affected his dating life. He is after someone who is smart and mature, he isn’t after anyone that is cute or difficult….ouch but I guess its straight to the point.

 

Another round of questions and parents number 6 has not stopped asking questions. They even asked him to move to their city and marry their daughter, even though they only know his name and he is a figure skater. After the mother from number 6 stops talking he is allowed to turn 3 out of the 6 lights off. Of course he walks straight to parents 6 but the mother is refusing for him to turn their light off, at this point I don’t know if the mother or the daughter wants him. After trying to turn the light off the mother convinces him to turn another parents light off, which he does. Now there are only 3 girls in the running.

Parent number 4 asked the bachie how would he resolve a fight with their daughter. After saying he is a reasonable person, he won’t let her have her way all the time the mother said to turn off her light leaving only 2 girls in the race and the crowd are shook.

 

The girls come out of their hidden room to relive themselves to the bachie, allowing the girls to make their own comments before the bachie decides to eliminate one of the girls. Surprise, surprise he eliminates girl number 6 with the crazy parents.

The bachie is about to make his final decision, yet there is a twist. The bachie picks the girl that always wants her way, even though the parents wanted him to turn their light out. As the couple walk off the stage, some girls are happy yet others are upset they missed their opportunity, but there are more bachie to come.

 

Chinese Dating with the Parents

While commercial networks get excited over Take Me Out, SBS has already moved onto Asia’s next crazy dating show, Chinese Dating With The Parents and it has another interesting element, the host happens to be transgender.

If You Are The One was such a booming success in Australia and China, the producers decided to create another interesting dating show. Single hopefuls reach out to famed transgender host Jin Xing for help with their love problems, but there is a catch to this show. Any potential partners must go through an intensive and grueling interrogation with the contestant’s parent in order to proceed to the next stage in the show.

This is a real modern romance dilemma with a spin as love can be right around the corner, but the potential partners must charm the parents first. Contestants will have to put their faith in their parents hands and believe that their parents will find their one.

So to give it a run down, there is a panel of 6 sets of parents that can decide to accept or reject the contestant. The parents that reject the candidate move back yet the girls are in another room and the girls can override their parent’s decision. When the parents keep their lights on, it’s the candidate’s turn to choose, this is the stage where he finds out about the girls and their families only through the exchange with the parents. Once he had heard all the information he needs, he finally chooses a girl has his date. It’s quite straightforward, yet oddly exciting.

I’ve decided to start from the beginning and head straight to episode one, season one. I’ll be reviewing each candidate and their methods, along with live tweeting this experience. You can find the hash tag #ChineseDatingWithTheParents #BCM320 and each candidate will have their own hash tag #bachie1 followed by #bachie2 and #bachie3.