Chinese takeaway

If you think speed-dating is rushed in the West, just consider the hurry-up approach to romance in China. In the country’s bustling cities, young people are now so busy that they have no time to look for Mr or Ms Right. The solution: group dating. In China, though, ‘group’ does not mean 30 singletons flirting over scorecards in a pub. At a recent event in Zhejiang, 12,658 people turned up looking for love. That’s an awful lot of potential mates to sift through in an evening. No wonder some female participants report that the only phone numbers they come home with are those of other single women looking for a shoulder to cry on.