Shanghai Matchmaking Event Should Not Have Age Restrictions

GLOBAL TIMES - Oct 21 - Shanghai's annual matchmaking event, commonly known as "the 10,000-person matchmaking fair" will be held at Yuehu Sculpture Park in Songjiang district next month. The age limit of participants will be lowered from 45 to 40 years old. According to big data from previous Shanghai love and marriage fairs, ~300K single men and women have participated in the matchmaking event since it was first launched in 2003. However, only ~16K couples actually went on dates after they met at the event and ~5K of those couples got married. Since only 1.6% of all previous participants were aged between 40 and 45, the success rate of participants in this age group is very low. But governments and related institutions should provide more channels for older (and younger) people to meet potential spouses regardless of age. Back off and let them decide which age is acceptable.