SEONGNAM โ The hotel ballroom was filled with pink balloons, the sound of love songs and singles gathering for a night of wine, getting acquainted and โ fingers crossed โ romance. Before Ms Mia Kim knew it, five hours had flown by at the mixer for 50 men and 50 women, held in a city just outside Seoul.
A bar after-party then lasted until 1am. The cities say the problem is that young people just do not want to get married or have the babies that would follow in a country where only 2 per cent of births are outside marriage. Many young South Koreans, though, say that the real obstacles to raising the birth rate are the staggering costs of child care, unaffordable homes, slim job prospects and crushing work hours โ and that blind-dating events do little to address these issues. Women, in particular, say they have been discouraged by the prevalence of discrimination against working mothers.
Others say that by trying to play matchmaker, the government is being too intrusive in personal reproductive choices. But the blind-dating events have proved popular. Seongnam received more than 1, applications for only spots for its August events. Participants have given the mixers rave reviews. While the proportion of people getting married has declined worldwide, it has plummeted to especially low levels in South Korea.
There were six marriages per 1, people in the United States in , compared with 3. Fewer births have come along with that statistic in South Korea. Even as the pool of South Koreans interested in having children shrinks, officials are expecting interest in government-sponsored matchmaking to endure. Cities in other countries with low birth rates, including China and Japan, have hosted such programmes too. In South Korea, many small cities have been sponsoring similar events for years, targeting people aged 27 to 39 who live or work in their communities.
Municipal matchmaking reached the greater Seoul area for the first time in Seongnam. Officials in Seoul said they were also considering hosting a blind-dating event. They had initially supported the proposal but were reviewing it because of widespread criticism on social media. Some young South Koreans have also dismissed the project as contrived and intrusive. However, they believed the events would satisfy a social need. Of the people who arrived solo, 78 people walked out as pairs, they said.
