美籍華人網上尋愛
This Valentines Day, many romantics found dates through 2RedBeans, an online dating service focused on matching Chinese - Americans.
"I met her 6 Months ago through 2RedBeans and I felt a growing chemistry throughout our conversations," says Li, a Chinese-American who works for a high-tech company in Silicon Valley and declines to give his first time. "I was already in love with her before I even set eyes on her."
"I was skeptical at first about using a dating website to find love," he says, adding that he had no prior experience with online dating. "I'm so glad I gave it a try."
Now, they have officially been a couple for three months, and Li said he is confident about his new relationship.
More and more people are finding love online. Even Zhao Qinghua, the founder of 2RedBeans, met her future husband on the website she established to help Chinese-American singles find love.
Zhao, who has a PhD in electrical engineering from the University of California-San Diego, started her entrepreneurial endeavor after working at Broadcom as a software engineer.
"Like many entrepreneurs, I started 2RedBeans with my friends to solve our own problems, finding dates that could lead to a life partner," Zhao says.
Zhao said it was difficult to meet other people with similar cultural backgrounds and values.
"Since popular US dating sites like and eHarmony are not focused on matching Chinese-Americans, it is often hard for us to find people who have the same cultural values," she says.
In contrast, 2RedBeans' matching algorithm focused on characteristics that are more relevant to the Chinese, such as arrival date in the US and zodiac signs.
Zhao and her team also decided to make the site very interactive to encourage people to communicate with each other early on.
"Chinese by nature are very shy, which decreases their opportunities to meet other people," she explains. "We try our best to increase the interaction and in turn to increase their chances of finding someone."
Over the past three years, the website has hosted more than 200 offline dating activities across North America. On Valentine's Day, it held singles parties in cities including Washington DC, New York, Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Vancouver.
A partner with China's popular dating show If You Are The One, the dating website assisted on the 2012 North American special episode. 2RedBeans is now the co-organizer of the 2014 US edition of One Out of a Hundred, another popular Chinese matchmaking show hosted by Shanghai Dragon TV.
"The US edition of the show One Out of a Hundred is intended not just to be a dating show, but also a window for people in China to have a peek into the lives of people in the US, their value systems, their criteria for a mate, and their lifestyle," Zhao explains.
"In only 10 days, we've already had more than 290 applicants to the show, including actresses, engineers, professors, real estate agents, many amazing singles," she adds.
As the largest Chinese dating site in North America, 2RedBeans has more than 200,000 registered users. Zhao expects 2RedBeans will grow and saturate the US and Canadian market in 2014, adding it will then be expanding to other countries where there are many Chinese immigrants.
"We are pushing out our mobile apps so that singles can get access to other singles on the go. We are also working on something that can bring singles offline to meet each other quickly," she says.
As for the total number of 2RedBeans matches that lead to marriage, Zhao said the conservative estimate is at least one couple per day. "For matches that become girlfriend or boyfriend, I'd imagine that's a much larger number," she adds.
Jin, a 38-year-old Chinese American who lives in Fremont, California and declined to give his first name, started a relationship two months ago through 2RedBeans.
After some general chitchat and the first date, Jin said things moved really quickly.
"I have tried and eHarmony before. However, unlike 2RedBeans, I never had a serious offline date with someone," he says. "I feel US dating sites are more casual dating oriented.
"To me, or many Chinese-Americans, we start our experience with the purpose of marriage. 2RedBeans has narrowed the dating pool based on the same background and that made it much easier for me to find the right person."今年的情人節，許多浪漫主義者通過“兩顆紅豆”成功約會。“兩顆紅豆”是專爲美籍華人尋找另一半的交友網站。
“6個月前，我通過‘兩顆紅豆’認識了她，交流後便對她產生了好感。”李先生說。只願意透露姓氏的李先生在硅谷的一家高科技公司工作。“沒見到她之前，我便愛上她了。”
“開始時我對網上尋愛也有所懷疑。”他說。他還補充道，他對網上約會沒有經驗。“我很開心自己做了嘗試。”
現在他們已經結婚3個月了。李先生說他對這段婚姻很有信心。
越來越多的人在網上尋愛。“兩顆紅豆”的創辦人趙清華也是在她自己創建的網站上遇見她未來丈夫的。這個網站旨在幫助單身美籍華人尋找真愛。
趙清華在加利福尼亞聖地亞哥分校獲得電氣工程博士學位，畢業後在美國博通公司做一名軟件工程師。
“與許多企業家一樣，我和朋友創建了‘兩顆紅豆’幫助解決我們的個人問題，與可能結婚的人約會。”趙清華說。
趙清華說，想要遇見擁有相似文化背景和價值觀的人很困難。
“美國流行約會網站如和eHarmony並不關注美籍華人。對我們來說找到擁有相同文化價值觀的人實屬不易。”她說。
相對而言，“兩顆紅豆”的配對法專注於中國人關注的特性，如抵美時間和屬相。
趙清華和她的團隊還決定採納網站互動模式，鼓勵人們彼此交流。
“中國人天性比較害羞，這就降低了他們與其他人相遇的機會。”她解釋道，“我們盡力增加交流，這樣會提高他們找到另一半的機率。”
在過去的三年，網站在北美舉辦了200多場線下約會活動。在情人節當天，網站還在華盛頓、紐約、波士頓、舊金山、洛杉磯和溫哥華等城市舉辦了單身派對。
網站還與中國流行約會節目《非誠勿擾》合作，協助舉辦2012北美專場。“兩顆紅豆”現在是2014年美版《百裏挑一》的合作商，《百裏挑一》是上海東方衛視舉辦的一個流行相親節目。
“美版《百裏挑一》不僅是一個相親節目，同時還是中國人瞭解美國人生活的窗戶，看看他們的價值體系，他們對另一半的標準還有他們的生活方式。”趙清華解釋道。
“10天內就有290多位報名者，包括演員、工程師、教授和房地產商，衆多優秀的單身者。”
作爲北美最大的中國約會網站，“兩顆紅豆”有超過20萬的註冊用戶。趙清華希望“兩顆紅豆”網站在2014年可以擴展進入美國和加拿大市場，然後慢慢擴展到其它擁有衆多華人移民的國家。
“我們正在推出自己的手機應用程序，這樣單身者在忙碌中也可以與其他單身者交流。我們也在努力工作，讓單身者下線時也可以快速見面。”她說。
趙清華說，通過“兩顆紅豆”喜結連理的夫婦總數量據保守估計每天至少一對。“成爲男女朋友的要多得多。”她補充說。
38歲的美籍華人金住在加利福尼亞菲蒙市，他只願意透露自己的姓氏。兩個月前，他通過“兩顆紅豆”開始了一段新戀情。
金說，我們就是隨便聊天，然後有了第一次約會，事情進展的非常快。
“以前我也試過和eHarmony網站。但是，和‘兩顆紅豆’不同，我從沒試過一次正式的線下約會。”他說，“我覺得美國的交友網站大都是休閒約會型的。”
“對我，或對衆多的美籍華人來說，我們都是以結婚爲目的。‘兩顆紅豆’爲我們縮小了約會範圍，大家擁有相同的背景，這讓我更容易找到自己的另一半。”
