CHINA — Chairman Mao Zedong must be spinning in his worker created tomb. Not only is Capitalism taking root throughout his beloved country’s biggest cities, not only are men and women wearing colorful and sometimes provocative clothing, not only are once tradition-bound singles actually engaged in the decadent business of dating, not only are they – but they’re also enthusiastically participating in that most bourgeois pastime of raising dogs, something outlawed by the radical social reformer.It gets worse, though – if you’re a Maoist, that is.
In order to make sure that their beloved pets meet only the most eligible and desirable of mates, their human owners have gone online, seeking the matchmaking skills of a breeding pet specific website.
Last week the Shanghai Daily announced that 100 lovelorn Shanghai dogs would have the opportunity this month to meet, greet, scratch, sniff, and who knows what else thanks to China’s first professional online pet matchmaking service.
The virtual yenta of dog love is GouGou520.com, which does its level best to match desirable dogs with one another. Not surprisingly, this sometimes has less then selfless benefits for the humans involved, as well.
“For single pet owners, this may lead to a real romance,” GouGou520 director Zhou Handong, admits. “We found most people who register are under 35 and working-class singles.”
It doesn’t take a social revolutionary to figure out what that means.
According to Zhou, the GouGou520 team has matched 100 pets so far, using basic information and details about personality. A total of 2,000 dogs have been registered since the site’s December launch.
Raising dogs was made legal only a few years ago, as living standards in China rose.
