According to a survey, security is what the Chinese consider most important when looking for someone to marry.

ACCORDING to a survey conducted by the China Association of Social Workers and the Baihe.com match-making website, celebrities, air stewardesses, tour guides and reporters are among the most unpopular candidates for marriage in China.

More than 60% of the male and female respondents who are single hoped that their other halves would not be in the showbiz line.

From the male respondents’ viewpoint, they hoped that they would not marry an air stewardess, a tour guide or journalist while the female respondents did not favour farmers and freelance workers.

A respondent told China National Radio that those working in showbiz or as reporters and air stewardesses would not be able to make time for their other halves.

“Reporting is a high-risk job. Whenever there is an earthquake or live reporting, they will need to be on standby,” another respondent said.

Another respondent said: “The showbiz line is quite complicated. I have many friends working in the media line and they seem to be much busier.”

Others said they preferred not to marry worka­­­holics who could not spend time with them.

The survey also revealed that once a person reaches 30 and above, he would lower his expectation on the woman whom he wanted to marry.

Some respondents said that they grew more anxious and were yearning for marriage when they became older.

Others said they felt the pressure from their parents and friends who had been encouraging them to tie the knot.

One-third of the total respondents said that they feared marriage, citing economic and financial reasons such as the lack of money to buy homes or raise a family.

The female respondents listed stable income, house ownership and sufficient savings as among the prerequisite to marry the men.

“There are three criteria: credit card, car and house. It’s not that I wanted to be materialistic but the society is indeed like that,” said a sin­­­­-gle woman.

Another woman said it would be okay if the man could not fulfil these requirements before marriage but he should work hard to achieve them.

Wang Zhiguo, who was responsible for the analysis in the survey, said that security was what the Chinese considered most when looking for someone to marry.

The survey was conducted online with the participation of a total of 50,741 respondents across China.

The respondents consisted of single men and women as well as those who just married.

About 53% of the newly-weds felt that the men should hand in their salary pay card to the women so that they would be able to gain control of the family’s financial power while 18% said it would be the men’s responsibility to do so.

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