Female contestants on Chinese dating shows are a dime a dozen. Usually described as rich spoilt princesses, most of these girls choose “wealthy” male contestants to just average good guys. However that isn’t the case with contestant Zhao Jie. Over the course of the last two years, Zhao’s turned down every man who’s got their eye on her, that is, until recently when the head of a Chinese pro gaming team showed up.
Twenty-four year-old Zhao Jie, has been a mainstay on the Chinese dating show “1 out of 100” (百里挑一) for the last two years. For pretty much every episode over the last 100 plus weeks, she’s declined to the advances of male contestants. Online comments say she’s just too picky.
All of that changed when 23 year-old professional gamer, Zhang Ning, showed up. Zhang Ning, who goes by the handle “Xiao8” is the capitan of professional Defence against the Ancients (DoTA) team LGD Gaming. Despite his gaming prowess, Zhang wasn’t a hit with the 15 other women on the show but he immediately struck a chord with Zhao.
Zhao claims to be a big fan of video games and is supposedly an avid DoTA player. She says that Zhang is like her idol on the same level as Hong Kong actor Andy Lau.
Chinese television dating shows are terrible. They’re so bad that the Chinese even say their terrible. Unfortunately they consistently get high ratings, so more and more episodes are produced.
The format of these shows usually revolves around a gaggle of women sitting behind podiums where they judge the ever-changing male contestants. On the stage there are usually a host and a judge who help the male contestant “get” with a lady. Should a male contestant leave with a plus one, the empty slot is filled with another woman — until said woman leaves the show with a contestant or ages out. Male contestants either “get” lucky, or invited back to “compete” with other male contestants until they are either chosen or let go.
Sadly, despite her very vocal approval of Zhang, Zhao hasn’t decided to leave the show with Zhang. Instead, she’s invited him back onto the show so she could “evaluate” him further. Zhang has been on the show for the past three weeks now and is invited to appear on this week’s episode. Hopefully Zhang will get to leave the show with Zhao this time.
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