Finding love in the reel world

Date on Saturday has been aired every Saturday evening in Shanghai since 1998. GAO ERQIANG/CHINA DAILY

Reel life versus real life

But most would agree that the reality of dating and getting hitched in China is anything but entertaining.

"Women are getting stronger financially, intellectually and in almost every aspect, and they are now less likely to settle for minimum requirements," said Zhong.

This phenomenon is reflected clearly in the show. The rate of men and women holding hands on the show - the action signifies a mutual agreement to enter a relationship - has fallen from 20 percent a decade ago to less than 10 percent in recent years.

"Still, we boast one of the highest success rates among dating agencies and matchmaking websites," said Zhong.

Ni Lin, the female host of the show who has been with the program since the very beginning, did not mince her words.

"I think the reason there are so many single people today is because men have greater access to sex and women have greater access to money. These factors make marriage less necessary," said the 44-year-old who is single.

Dubbed as China's most famous matchmaker, the Shanghai native and local celebrity has a famous theory on "single Class A women and Class D men" that has been widely quoted across media platforms. She posits that as Chinese men usually prefer women who are inferior in social status as their spouses (Class A men looking for Class B women), it is only natural that the people left in the marriage market are the high-caliber "Class A" women and "Class D" men.

Statistics from the national ministry of civil affairs showed that by the end of 2015, the single population in China was more than 200 million, the equivalent of the combined population of Britain and Russia. The ministry also found that the proportion of single men and women in east China, the most economically developed region, is the highest at 26 percent for both groups.

These figures are worrying to the government. People not getting married means lower birthrates, which in turn exacerbates problems related to an aging population.

During the latest meeting of the China Youth League in May, the organization included "getting young people out of singlehood" as one of their 10 priorities for the decade spanning 2016 to 2025. Following the meeting, the official Sina Weibo account of the League even posted that "the China Youth League is duty-bound to help you find a better self and the best him or her".

The last time romantic relationships became a national and political agenda in China was almost a century ago in 1919. Then, hundreds of thousands of students demonstrated to demand an end to arranged marriage and access to democracy and science.

Arranged marriages were the norm for thousands of years in China. In some cases, parents decided who their child would marry even before they were born. This practice, together with keeping concubines and the denial of a woman's right to get out of a marriage, has been banned since 1950.