Matchmaker, matchmaker

Fan's studio regularly organizes events to help young people know each other.

She made her first match in 1984, a year after she got married. It was also the convention then that only married women could become matchmakers because they had the experience and they were no threat to the single women.

At the time, Fan was a teacher at a training school. One day a relative visited her and saw a group photo of Fan and her students in her home. He pointed to one of the girls and said, "This is the most beautiful girl". It happened that she was also the only woman still single.

"I volunteered to make the match and the two became a couple. It was destiny," Fan says.

Fan's next successful match sealed her reputation. She found a wife for a man who was only about 1.6 meters tall. Height is considered a key attraction by many women, and he had already been turned down many times before.

"As I always tell the young people, appearance and wealth are not the most important factors when choosing your mate. What really matters is a decent personality," she says.

Fan retired in 2004 and thought she could volunteer as a counselor to help drug addicts kick the habit.

"But that was a bit difficult. I thought why not do something I am good at? So I became a full-time matchmaker, as matchmaking concerns the happiness of three families."

She collected a data bank of bachelors and bachelorettes around her, paired them up in her mind and then introduced them to each other.