Helen Bushby Culture reporter at Sheffield Documentary Festival Fish+Bear Pictures Li (left) is posed for a photograph by Hao, during his week-long course in how to attract women To say China’s women are outnumbered would be an understatement. With a staggering 30 million more men than women, one of the world’s most populous countries has a deluge of unattached males. The odds are heavily stacked against them finding a date, let alone a wife – something many feel pressured to do. To make matters worse, it’s even harder if you’re from a lower social class, according to Chinese dating coach Hao, who has over 3,000 clients. “Most of them are working class – they’re the least likely to find wives,” he says. We see this first-hand in Violet Du Feng’s documentary, The Dating Game, where we watch Hao and three of his clients throughout his week-long dating camp. All of them, including Hao, have come from poor, rural backgrounds, and were part of the generation growing up after the 90s in China, when many parents left their toddlers with other family members, to go and work in the cities. That generation are now adults, and are going to the cities themselves to try to find a wife and boost their status. Du Feng, who is based in the US, wants her film to highlight what life is like for younger generations in her home country. “In a time when gender divide is so extreme, particularly in China, it’s about how we can bridge a gap and create dialogue,” she tells the BBC. Fish+Bear Pictures [L-R] The Dating Game sees Hao take Wu, Li and Zhou shop for clothes, which he chooses for them Hao’s three clients – Li, 24, Wu, 27 and Zhou, 36 – are battling the aftermath of
