81-Year-Old Finds Love Online

By Lydia Chen, Shanghai Daily.com
October 27, 200, China

An 81-year-old man in Beijing has proved that a quick wedding and Internet love are not reserved for young people as he married a woman he found online within three days of their first date.

Wu Jieqin, a professor at the China Central Academy of Fine Arts, held a wedding banquet yesterday with Jiang Xiaohui, 58, a woman he found on a matchmaking Website in September 2008, Beijing Morning Post reported today.

“I saw her picture online and I thought she was just the one I was looking for,” Wu told the newspaper.

Wu divorced when he was 63. He put a lonely heart notice on the matchmaking Website last year with the help of a student.

The sculpture expert bought a computer to better communicate with his daughter in the United States and had been using the Internet since 1998 when he returned to China from teaching overseas.

Still, he never expected he would find love online.

After chatting online for 10 days, Wu went to Chengdu City in Sichuan Province to meet Jiang, the report said.

“I knew I found my true love at the first sight of her,” Wu told the newspaper.

The couple decided to knot the tie after three days after meeting.

“I didn’t care what others thought,” Wu was quoted as saying. “There are no rules against old people seeking love online and the Internet not only belongs to the young people.”

But to reach the altar, Wu had to overcome the opposition of Jiang's parents, aged 85 and 86, who feared he was too old.

But he won them over.

"His voice is very youthful. Not like an 80-year-old," Jiang, a retired railway worker and a Sichuan native, told the paper. "He's very romantic."

Wu said he plans to move to Sichuan to be with his new bride.

He likened their love to two well-meshed gears.

"As long they are up to scratch, they can keep turning forever, and you don't have to care whether they're old or new," he told Beijing Morning Post.

In China, couples traditionally get married legally first and then hold a wedding banquet at a later date.


Original link: http://www.globalaging.org/elderrights/world/2008/love.htm