Dating à chinesa

: padrões de selecção de cônjuge e a comercialização do casamento na China contemporânea refletidos no Programa de Encontros Fei Cheng Wu Rao 非诚勿扰

Abstract

The reality dating programs have constituted an important segment of entertainment industry over several decades around the world. In China, the tradition of arranged marriages has a history of more than one thousand years. In the 1980s, the first Chinese dating program was aired on television, and since then, programs of this genre have gained increasing attention from the Chinese audience, both for their entertainment nature and for the importance of marriage in Chinese culture. One of the most representative programs of this genre in China is If You Are the One, aired on Jiangsu TV. Shortly after its debut, this program has become one of China's most popular TV shows, as marital values and other topics discussed in the program have generated major debates in Chinese society. This dissertation aims to present the most popular debates related to the program, such as the marital values of the Chinese people from various social classes and the commercialization of romantic relationships in the 21st century. The empirical analysis made in this paper on the above questions indicate that there are differences between the criteria of ideal spouses among migrant workers, the middle class, social elites and also between continental Chinese and overseas Chinese. Besides, there is also a big difference between the two genders, since single women in the marital market have, in general, more advantages and choices than single men. As for the commercialization of romantic relationships, this dissertation argues that this is not only a phenomenon that emerged after the ‘Reform and Opening-up’ policy by the end of 1970s, but that there is also a strong tradition of commercializing marriages and demonstrating the seriousness of romantic relationships with valuable goods since ancient and imperial China. However, the market economy has also created new ways of commercializing romantic relationships in the 21st century China.

Date of Award	23 Feb 2018
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	António Eduardo Hawthorne Barrento (Supervisor)