Taking marriage at face value

Why Westerners and Chinese are happy to date outside their ethnic comfort zones

There are three things Chinese parents dread for their daughters: that they don't marry, that they marry poor or that they do the unspeakable and marry non-Chinese.

Today, spinsterhood is no bad thing. Who better to take care of mom and pops when dementia or arthritis kicks in? Responsible, caring, plenty of free time unencumbered by romantic entanglements, the adult daughter is usually head and shoulders above the bachelor son who remains a man-child, depending on his mother to cook and clean for him well into his 40s.