A perfect man is difficult to find

By Meng Jing (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-11-25 10:54

Five years ago and just before I entered college, my mother gave me the most important advice of my life: five criteria for selecting my future boyfriend.

No 1: He should be perfectly healthy and none of his family members should have suffered from serious health problems.

No 2: He should be more educated than me.

No 3: He should be at least 10 cm taller than me.

No 4: He should have a better financial background than me.

No 5: He should have single eyelids.

My mother's advice became mission impossible in my college life simply because in an art school with a male to female ratio of 4:7, finding a man was tricky but a man who met her five criteria was unattainable.

Five years later, as a professional lady armed with a master's degree, I find it even harder to fulfill my mother's dream. To make matters worse, she had a sixth point: "he should have a better job and be better paid than you".

While I understand my mother's good intentions, I cannot understand why in our society so many women look for superior men? My single girlfriends often complain there are fewer available men on the market. They don't seek millionaires, but they reject anyone who is less "qualified" than them.

Modern Chinese women tell the world that they are men's equals. While they want to be treated the same as men in education and employment, when it comes to relationships, they seek out unbalanced situations. Perhaps there is a part of every woman that loves the romantic notion of being swept off her feet by a charming gentleman.

But I'd still like to remind all women to stop chasing after superior men. We have fought hard to get equality and we no longer need to be saved.

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