在魔都有个神奇又“邪恶”的地方，那就是——人民广场的相亲角。 在年轻人越来越没时间（或不想）找对象的当下，老一辈们愈发热衷起拉郎配来。可别嫌相亲角这样的形式老套，这可是刚需啊！ 前段时间呢，人民广场相亲角闯入一位特别的“来宾”。他是谁？他是去相亲的吗？听记者Wang Han慢慢道来——
英国老戏骨伊恩?麦克莱恩前阵子现身上海人民公园著名的“相亲角”推销自己。
（出处见水印）
伊恩的牌子上写着自己的介绍：“伊恩，77岁，1米8，剑桥大学毕业，在伦敦有房。”
那么伊恩爷爷到访的相亲角究竟长啥样？
下面，是记者在现场拍摄的照片……
关键词1：人多
周六从早上10点到下午4点，人一点都没有少掉。很多家长自带盒饭，一坐就坐一天的。
关键词2：A4纸
子女的条件都写在这A4白纸上。整个相亲角到处是这样的A4纸，贴雨伞上的，摆地上的，挂胸前的，贴树干上的…
关键词3：条件都不才差
一位上海阿姨说，差的哪里好意思来呢？
Global Times采访了在相亲角的外国人，家长，红娘，还有社会学的学者。听听他们对这个远近闻名的“相亲角”真实的看法——
What’s love got to do with it?
人民广场相亲角
人民广场相亲角一脸懵B的吃瓜群众
Very different
以色列的瓦迪姆是第一次来上海玩，刚好路过人民公园。看到上千名中国大妈大爷密密麻麻聚在公园里，他和小基友一脸懵B，不知大伙是在干嘛。等记者告诉他家长们都是在这里给子女相亲的，他和小伙伴惊呆了。
Vadim Balahovshi, from Israel, a first-time visitor to Shanghai, was stunned by the scenes in the park. He told the Global Times that this was very different from anything he had seen before and it took him a while to figure out what the Chinese parents were doing.
“在我的国家，如果家长自作主张要给我介绍对象，我会叫他们别瞎操心了。”
"In the culture I come from, if my parents told me whom to marry, I would just tell them to leave me alone," Balahovshi said.
瓦迪姆得知A4纸上是未婚男女们的外在的物质条件时，微微皱起了眉头。
He said that while the parents in the park were paying a good deal of attention to material concerns, in his culture material concerns were not the priority.
“这么开门见山地谈现实条件不太好吧。在我们那，如果有人想撮合一对男女，肯定是看两个人是不是志趣相投，生活方式相似。物质条件是放到后面考虑的。”
"We care more about whether our partner shares the same interests and lifestyles with us, and we rarely talk about our financial situation publicly," he said.
来自俄罗斯的达莉丝看到这种集体性的相亲活动并不惊奇。
But Russian visitor Daris Savchenko didn't find anything strange about the matchmaking corner.
“很多国家都有相亲的文化，或许没有这里这么大规模，但是在家庭聚会里或者朋友聚会上介绍谁，是很常见的。”她表示只要这里的家长不自作主张替孩子找对象逼孩子结婚，那便没什么问题。这位俄罗斯妹子也很理解中国父母的心理，说这是父母参与到孩子生活的一种方式。
"Matchmaking happens in almost all cultures and all countries. People in other cultures matchmake in different ways, for example, during dinner or at family events. What the Chinese parents are doing here is just another way of doing it," Savchenko said. "As long as parents don't force their children into a marriage, it's fine, because for parents this is their way to take part in their children's lives."
达莉丝还指出来这里相亲的父母们有保护孩子隐私的意识。“这里的爸妈一般不会把孩子的照片或者名字放出来。比起把孩子的姓名和照片放到相亲网站上，这种不透露姓名和长相的相亲更能保护孩子的隐私。”
She said the parents in the park were careful and rarely displayed their children's names or pictures, and most of them just gave very general descriptions which was a good way for preserving the privacy of their children.
48岁的腐国大龄在沪留学生鲁珀特能看懂一点点中文。他向记者表示，他实在理解不了为什么那么多中国家长替孩子操心婚姻大事，还替孩子们来公众场所相亲。他说公园里展示的单亲男女看起来生活条件并不差，单身也能生活得挺好的啊。鲁伯特长得比较显小，吸引了一位中国大妈的目光。这位阿姨说她就想给女儿找个善良强壮的外国人，生个可爱的混血宝宝。
Rupert Beal is a Brit studying at a Shanghai university. He can read some Chinese but the 48-year-old was puzzled at why so many Chinese parents were worrying about their children's marriages and matchmaking in public. He also caught the attention of one Chinese mother desperate to find a foreign partner for her daughter.
还有个外国小伙看到这里声势浩大的相亲活动，忍不住掏出手机拍摄起来，还直接对着一些大爷大妈的脸拍。大爷大妈立刻就炸毛了，对着这外国小伙大吼，还要抢他手机，要他立刻删了。而小伙的中国朋友说这里是公众场所，干嘛不能拍…两方争执不下，都来保安来了，把外国人给拉开了。
One foreign visitor who was taking pictures at the corner upset some of the parents who demanded that he delete the pictures. The parents and the man argued loudly for a while until a security guard intervened.
黄金单身汪
你以为单身汪们都是没长相没学历，性格不好，没房，工作不好，低收入，没品位的吗？你out啦。在人民公园相亲角的单身男女们，呈现的个人条件都不差。多数都没有过婚姻，年龄在27-38岁之间。（70多岁自己找老婆的也有，孩子才23，24岁的家长也有）
According to the details on the posters on display the young men and women are earning good salaries and are potentially fine husbands and wives. Most have not been married before and are aged between 27 and 38.
一眼望去大多数至少都有本科学历。不少都是毕业上海响当当的名校（复旦，上外，上财）。还有不少海归名校的，比如我那天就逛到了英国帝国理工的。
Most have a degree and some are graduates from prestigious universities like Fudan University. Some even boast degrees from famous foreign institutions like Imperial College London.
职业也都不错，比如四大国有银行的，医生，设计院，500强外企等。男女生写的年薪一般都在10-20万之间，几十万上百万的也有。要知道，官方数据显示2015年上海职工平均年收入是7万多元。
These marriage candidates are usually well employed as bank officers, doctors or they work for foreign companies. The annual salaries displayed run between 100,000 yuan ($15,210) and 200,000 yuan, although some get more than 300,000 yuan annually. In 2015 the average annual salary in Shanghai was 71,269 yuan, according to the Jiefang Daily.
来这的男女，不论是本地人还是新上海人，基本都有上海户口了。男士一般有上海的婚房。若市中心有房产的，一些家长会给孩子贴标签为“黄浦男”“静安男”(这两个区的房价都10万+/每平方了)。
Most of the candidates have Shanghai hukou (household registration). The men own property in the city, some apparently having two or three apartments downtown where it costs more than 80,000 yuan for a square meter in an apartment.
很多单身的姑娘也是在上海有房子的。一些家长还打着“嫁女儿送上海房子”的旗号。
Some of the women also own property in Shanghai and some parents promise that they will give a property to their daughter and her partner when they get married.
好女多好男少
50多岁的陆阿姨今年年初才来这里给女儿（28岁外企员工）物色合适的男生的。但连续五个来月每个周六来踩点，都没看到中意的男生。
“新闻里不都说中国有多少万的剩男吗？可我来这里一看，看到的多是女方家长，男方家长少很多。”
"I learned on the news that there are more unmarried men in China than unmarried women. But at the matchmaking corner, there are more single women than men," she said.
除了女多男少，陆阿姨还感觉女生的整体水准比男生好很多。“好多小姑娘学历工作收入都不错，但综合条件好的男生就没那么多了。如果某个家长的儿子年龄28岁左右，收入不错，在上海又有房子，好多女生家长都围过去咧。”
"There are many well-educated young girls with decent jobs and salaries at the marriage market. But there are many fewer matching men," she said. "If a parent has an unmarried son with a good income and property in Shanghai, that parent gets surrounded by crowds of parents of girls."
媒婆道真相
周女士在相亲角做红娘已经有十年左右了。看了太多的她，对来这里相亲的成功率并不看好。她说成功率其实很低的，很多家长来了五年七年的都还没给孩子找到对象。但作为职业红娘的她们只管收中介费，不保证成功率。
Matchmaker Zhou said that the success rate at the matchmaking corner was really low, and she has seen many parents spending five to seven years there and never finding a match for their children.
她觉得来这里相亲的家长太物质了。“家长来这里，一般就是挑现实条件。不论男女，都想找比自己孩子条件好的。大家都不愿意吃点亏，怎么能成？”
"The parents here tend to put materialistic situations first, while young people prefer partners who share common interests," she said. "Also, both the girls' parents and the boys' parents only want to take advantage of the others without giving anything up themselves."
说到好女多好男少的情况，周女士也很有感触。“真实条件不错的姑娘挺多的，但真实条件不错的男人就很少了。A男可以选A女B女甚至C女，但是A女一般只看得上A男和A+男。但哪有那么多条件好的男人啊？”
"A-level males can choose A-level, B-level or, sometimes, C-level women. But most A-level women only want A-level or higher men," she said.
专家怎么看？
了解了人民广场相亲角的情况后，西南石油大学社会学讲师章晓表示，上海这个相亲角的男女并不是真的被“剩”下来，找不到对象。
“剩男剩女”这个词实际上是一个年龄相对较大一点的未婚男女被“标签化”的一个过程。‘标签化’意味着其实很多‘剩’并不是真的‘剩’，这种真的被婚恋市场剩下的人大多是经济条件相对较差的农村的男性。你提及的这些条件优秀的剩男剩女们严格意义上讲并不是在婚恋市场中真的被pk下来的人。通常优秀的人会有更高的学历或更丰富的生命体验，他们对自己的人生选择会有更多元化的考量，对婚恋会有更高的质量要求。”
"The term 'leftover men and women' is overused in China. It actually refers to poor rural adults who are marginalized in the marriage market," Zhang said. "Many of the people being advertised at the matchmaking corner could actually be highly competitive in the marriage market - the reason why they remain single and unmarried in their late 20s or 30s is that they set higher standards for life partners and marriage."
虽然这个相亲角的成功率不高，但章老师很能理解它能持续吸引家长的原因。“父母们热衷于此，一是因为相亲会也是一种婚恋渠道，有可能了解到更多适龄男女，二是，到这种场合父母的焦虑心情会有一定的缓解，‘看，和我一样操心孩子的人不少啊，我不是最孤单最无奈的那一个’，这种场合容易找到境况相似的人。”
"When parents come to the marriage market, they find many other parents who are also worried about their children. Then they realize that they are not alone and that many other people are in the same situation."
原文/翻译：Wang Han
图：Wang Han、网络
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人民广场相亲角
