Dozens of meters away in a sunflower field in southwestern China, Liu Yugang — a divorced father in his 50s — answers without hesitation: “Yes, I would.”
The two have never spoken. Armed only with a name, a photograph and a brief profile, they choose each other from a distance and step aside for their first date. They trade stories, laugh easily and sketch a cartoon portrait of themselves together. Liu jokes that it looks like a wedding photo.By nightfall, Wang chooses someone else.
The twist is built into “Forever by Your Side,” a dating show that has surged to the top of Chinese streaming charts since December. In a genre typically dominated by people in their 20s, the series centers on contestants in their late 40s and early 50s — many divorced, some with children, all carrying decades of lived experience.
