Voices

Elite dating game sign of unhealthy VIP worship

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-06-23 08:13

A grand matchmaking event was staged simultaneously in Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Shanghai on Monday.

Each man taking part paid 180,000 yuan. And that's not all. They each had to have personal assets exceeding 30 million yuan.

Among the 10 men allowed to take part were financial gurus and real estate tycoons worth more than 100 million yuan.

In an age when wealth has become the main, if not only, standard to assess a person, the numbers are large enough to make one's heart beat faster.

What seems to be an exclusive rich man's game has a fatal attraction among ordinary people. Some 50,000 young women took part in the competition and, after many rounds, only 18 will make it to the stage where they can have a face-to-face meeting with the "diamond bachelors".

The young women took part with great expectations. They dream of becoming a modern-day Cinderella and of changing their destiny by marrying a rich man.

But can rich men and beautiful women really find their happiness through such a soap-opera-like match-making game?

The organizers of this and TV matchmaking shows use beauty and wealth as the selling points to attract people's eyeballs. They share the same goal: To make money.

In a modern society, those who have stronger ability are expected to shoulder greater responsibility. The men who have millions yuan of wealth obviously master greater social resources. They make their fortune from society and have the obligations to repay society. They are obliged to do more charity work and lend more help to the poor, instead of showing off their wealth and status by squandering their money.

It is a pity that today the trend of blind worship of wealth runs high. It can be seen in the mushrooming of VIP services.

There are VIP classes in public primary schools, which charge astronomical tuition fees. There are VIP rooms for rich individuals and work units in public hospitals. Show-off consumerism is flooding every field.

VIPs are exploiting the resources and living space of ordinary people and widening the gap further between rich and poor.

The game of rich men selecting beautiful women is a result of the VIP complex. The harsh standards these wealthy bachelors set for the young women all expose their sense that money dominates. Those young women, who willingly accept the unreasonable requirements, rounds of selection and do not feel insulted and shamed, show they have already knelt down before money.

It is true that those rich men spent their own money to take part in the game, which is against no law. But above the law there are moral and social codes. Such a show of wealth that benefits neither society nor the cultivation of healthy values should be stopped.

Excerpts from a comment in Beijing Youth Daily, June 22