One of my buddies, a 25-year-old guy, had just broken up with his girlfriend.

The moment his parents found out, they started introducing him to new girls. He didn't even have time to "heal" from his last relationship.

I developed a phobia for blind dates after one of my distant relatives whom I have never met, abruptly woke me up with an early morning phone call to tell me that his niece is also in Beijing.

I remember clearly what he told me: "You should meet each other, and if it is suitable, let her become your girlfriend."

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Employers today also seem to care more about their employees' marital status - they organize group blind dates for the bachelors and bachelorettes in the company. Well, maybe it can be considered as part of staff benefits.

I attended one such meeting in late September. The matchmaking session was jointly organized by China Daily and a few neighboring companies. Before I went, I was told that about 30 colleagues had registered, but in the end, only a handful showed up.

The majority were women and I was shocked to find young men of my age. One organizer whispered to me: "Highly educated women may have high expectations of their future husbands, and that is why many remain single."

Each of us was asked to wear a card with a number on it. If we are interested in anyone, we can ask the organizers for the contact details.

The men were required to introduce themselves first before answering questions from the women, an apparent replica of the popular TV dating game show If You Are the One.

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The atmosphere was anything but lively. When the host asked the participants to join hands to play games, very few responded. It felt really uncomfortable sitting in front of a group of strangers without names and having to introduce myself as well as share my thoughts on questions like "What is the most important thing in a relationship?"

It is like promoting a commodity or bidding in an auction house.

To break the awkwardness, the host ended the meeting by asking everyone to join a Tencent QQ group in cyberspace.

I breathed a sigh of relief when the session finally came to an end.

What surprised me was when I signed up for the QQ group later - the participants were extremely talkative in the virtual world. They shared their interests and personal stories although we were technically strangers.

I am still wondering why it was so hard to break the ice at the session even though most of us are from the same age group.

Perhaps people are more comfortable communicating with each other virtually, and that may also explain why we are all still single.

wangkaihao@chinadaily.com.cn

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