The Marriage Market

If you happen to be wandering through a park on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon, you may notice groups of elderly people holding up signs or attaching them to long clotheslines along walking paths. At first, you may assume that they are advertising some kind of product. Indeed they are. The product being their children. Hundreds of parents and grandparents line up holding signs which market their sons and daughters. Each sign includes (but is not limited to) their child's height/age/weight, education, job position, and income. In China, marriage should occur by the mid twenties. Thirty is really pushing it (especially for a woman) and if you wait too long, well, don't be surprised if you happen to come across a flyer where YOU are the item for sale.