Eighteen wealthy men from Guangzhou, Guangdong province, have launched a program to seek out beautiful young partners, albeit with certain conditions.

The eligible candidates should be at least 1.65 meters tall; they should be around 25 or 26 years of age, and most important, have facial features that assure great fortune for their prospective husbands.

The wealthy men are doing nothing but flaunt their riches, but what is actually shocking is that quite a few young ladies have responded to the advertisement.

In fact, more than 1,000 young women have been short-listed for the first round, and a "master" has been hired to read the candidates' faces.

Chinese have been reading faces for thousands of years. They believe faces reveal not only their own but also the destiny of their spouses.

This pursuit for that perfect partner who brings fortune is nothing but equating happiness with wealth, and as such should be discouraged.

Worship of wealth becomes a tendency, as evidenced by the many TV programs on matchmaking that are aired by Jiangsu, Hunan and Zhejiang TV stations.

The Guangzhou program is only the latest experiment in glorifying wealth, and it remains to be seen whether it will succeed or fail. But one thing is for sure - money can never buy happiness or love.

(China Daily 06/24/2010 page8)