中国富翁"征婚"折射拜金主义

　　Money can't buy you love, but in modern China it can bring you the pick of 50,000 of China's prettiest girls after one of the country's largest online dating agencies held a competition to find the perfect match for 18 of its dollar-millionaire members。

　　The competition has attracted huge attention in China where online dating is becoming one of the internet's fastest-growing and most competitive industries, expected to be worth 120 million pounds this year。

　　Hopefuls from as far afield as Vancouver, Singapore, New York and Paris flew in to China last weekend to join local girls in the first round of auditions which saw an initial selection of 2,600 successful applicants being assessed on the basis of their weight, education and age. The group of 2,600 had now been whittled down to 130 women who would enter a final round next month, with the lucky 18 finalists attending a party with their potential matches。

　　The identity of the millionaires has been kept secret, but their average age is 38 and all have self-made fortunes from a range of industries including textiles, finance and China's booming property market. The men had all proved their financial bona fides by producing ownership documents for luxury villas, limousines, sports cars and private planes. A financier from Shenzhen promised to a Porsche to whichever woman proved herself a worthy match。

　　The brazen nature of such dating competitions, has raised concerns in China about society's obsession with money and the extreme commoditizing of sex and relationships。

　　Earlier this year one female contestant on a television dating show caused an online outcry when she flippantly remarked that she would "rather be crying in the backseat of BMW than smiling on the back of a bicycle"。

　　China's much more conservative older generation have compared the search for millionaire's wives to the selection of imperial concubines in ancient times, with the new super-rich elite substituting for the old imperial family。