Veteran Chinese matchmakers lead 1,680 couples to marriage over 63 years

Lan Yuyun helps a client to find a suitable partner.

The 85-year-old Chen Yilun and 81-year-old Lan Yuyun, who together have run a matchmaking workshop in Wuhan since they retired, have been described by some as “super matchmakers.”

The numbers speak for themselves: among their clients, more than 1,680 couples have tied the knot after taking part in their workshop. In addition, over 3,000 pairs are currently dating. As a result, Lan was formally recognized as a Good Samaritan by China’s cultural and ethical authorities in 2014.

Single people's profiles in the workshop.

The couple saw that the price of marriage has been climbing higher and higher ever since China’s opening-up in the 1980s. Many young people and their parents began coming to the workshop with specific demands about property and salaries. Chen and Lan recorded all these preferences on each single person's profile, and the information was later used to search for a suitable partner.

Chinese women today are increasingly choosy about their mates' occupations. Engineers and technicians have elbowed out civil servants to seize the title of ideal husband. Meanwhile, irregular working hours earn journalists and police officers a lower ranking in the marriage market.

Age is another important criterion. In Lan's experience, the age 27 is a dividing line; men above 27 and women under 27 are the easiest to match.

The clients waiting in the workshop.

A survey conducted by the All-China Women’s Federation in 2015 showed that the average age at which Chinese people marry is 26 years old, up from 23 for women and 25 for men in 2000. City-dwellers have delayed marriage even further, waiting on average until they hit 30. The number of single people in China had reached almost 200 million in 2015.

The latest national census showed that nearly 2.5 percent of all 30-year-old women were unmarried, double the number from 10 years ago. Experts speculate that this change is mainly driven by the higher incomes women are now receiving, along with a heightened sense of self-awareness and independence.

Although the marriage rate is plummeting, Chen always has faith that love will come along for his clients. In a recent and memorable case, an 88-year-old retired professor found a 77-year-old girlfriend.

“If senior citizens can find true love, even though their primes are behind them, why can’t young people? ” Chen wondered.