By: Gloria Liu, Staff Writer
Spending Valentine’s Day alone seems unappealing to many people, especially university students who secrete an abundance of hormones. To combat with the enormous loneliness and massive boredom, Chinese Students & Scholars Association (CSSC) at Arizona State University (ASU) hosted a matching show called “Fei Cheng Wu Rao” meaning “Don’t ask me out unless you’re serious”. With butterflies in the stomach, nine girls and eight boys from ASU, Thunderbird School of Global Management, the University of Arizona, and Northern Arizona University bravely stood on the stage, hoping to find the one.
The format was a copy of a very popular fast dating television show in China named “Fei Cheng Wu Rao”. During the show, there are three rounds. In the first round, all girls stand on the stage together, and a boy will step out, speaking his words of love to all the girls or a particular one in some cases. If the girls are not interested in the guy, they simply signal their intention by turning off their lights. In the second round, girls will watch a video about the boy, and both sides will have some Q&As. Girls further decided if they are interested in the guy by either letting the light on or turning it off. In the third round, if more than two lights are on for the boy, then the boy puts off all but two, and the two girls will fight for the boy by expressing their feelings. The little thrill here is that the boy’s “favorite” girl that he has chosen the moment he steps on the stage will also join the conversation. If the “favorite” girl has put off the light in previous rounds, then the boy may be rejected if he insists on dating the girl. However, the boy will have a guaranteed date if he chooses either of the last two girls.
Round 1: 9 girls & 1 boy, 9 girls make a choice based on first impression.
Round 2: Girls with lights on and the boy, girls make a choice based on a video of the boy.
Round 3: The boy takes out one of the two girls with lights one, or he fights for his “favorite girl”.
A little bit complicated it seems, I know. Why the heck would anyone go through all those steps to pursue a possible love interest? Isn’t it better to just stay with one girl and one boy at the same time? Well, the answer is that it is a show! The audience needs to be entertained in some way. As Jonny Jiang, a second year male MS Global Finance student commented, it was fun to watch so many beautiful girls fight for a guy. He said that the great uncertainty of the final results just excited him. Then what is the good for any participants given the ambiguity? As Wu Mei, a second year MS student at Thunderbird said, she joined the show mostly for fun, and then to kill time on Valentine’s Day, and then comes down to meet “the one”.