Gandalf at the marriage market in Shanghai. Where in China is Gandalf could be fun game pic.twitter.com/TP2JlficYU
— Damien Ma (@damienics) June 11, 2016
Dammit, Gandalf. In the midst of his quest to spread the words of Shakespeare all across China, Sir Ian McKellen recently took a moment from promoting The Bard, and as reported on Shanghaiist, promoted himself at the Shanghai Marriage Market.
First started in 1996, the marriage market is a well-known portion of the city’s People’s Park, where meddling parents congregate to discuss the romantic fates of their unwed children. Parents who visit the market, which can see crowds of over a thousand people on the weekends, can post hand-written CVs about their children like analog dating profiles. They will often include information about the single child’s occupation, earnings, education, and other metrics that might make them seem more dateable. Unsurprisingly, many of the unwed children being advertised are none too excited about the whole process, and end up not finding a mate anyway.
But those unlucky single children and fretting parents might finally be in luck since the Oscar-nominated actor who played both Gandolf and Magneto, has thrown his hat in the ring. McKellen was in China to take part in the Shanghai International Film Festival, which is putting a focus on the works of Shakespeare this year. As part of his travels, the actor is taking photographs of himself holding Shakespeare quotes in locations all over China including The Great Wall, and yes, the Shanghai Marriage Market. But as seen in a photo shared by the British Council on Chinese social media app, Weibo, he also made his own charming, hand-written dating profile:
5’11’
77 Years
Cambridge University
House In London
Still Active
It's even signed with a little caricature.
McKellen probably just showed up for a laugh, but, in any case, he has once again made all other single men seem a bit unworthy.