Guixi, a Chinese city with a population of 640,000 people, has launched a state-sponsored matchmaking app. The platform uses data on single citizens to organise blind dates, hoping to reverse the province’s falling marriage rate.
The Guardian reports that this platform, called “Palm Guixi”, is just one of the local initiatives to drive connection-finding. Other areas in the Chinese province of Jiangxi are seeing in-person events being organised to get singles to meet one another.
A significant motive behind the matchmaking campaign is to reduce the practice of ‘bride prices’. This traditional custom sees men having to offer financial gifts to a potential bride’s family before a marriage can take place.
The local authorities have attempted to crack down on this practice. The expected exchange of money for potential brides in the Jiangxi region are on average 380,000 yuan or £45,000.
The Guardian reports that Chinese citizens are linking this initiative to the national government’s marriage push.
Individuals involved in Government state affairs have called for positive portrayal of marriage and childbearing in the media, as well as free college education for families who have a third child born, for example.