SINGAPORE – Zoe Tay and Guo Liang were introduced to the modern dating scene by celebrities Zhang Zetong and Juin Teh in the recent episode of The Zoe and Liang Show. The topic started when Guo Liang mentioned the term ‘kiss buddies’, a relationship trend that is now popular in China.
This notion refers to friends who are casually kissing each other without romantic feelings involved.
Zhang admitted that he had heard of the term ‘friends with benefits’ before, but not ‘kiss buddies’. Teh also expressed that the emerging trend seemed like a downgrade from the previous one.
Tay then remarked that she is not fond of the idea, while Zhang said that it is okay for people to have either kiss buddies or friends with benefits.
Throughout the episode, the younger stars tried to explain the concept of dating for today’s generation, with both parties having differing opinions about it.
“Actually we already have a specific term to describe people who are dating in English, and it’s called a ‘situationship’. It’s the stage that comes before a relationship. And the couple can do everything that they want to do or think of doing in an actual relationship, but they aren’t officially a couple yet,” added Zhang.
“It’s so weird,” Tay replied, and was confused because for her, people who are dating can simply refer to themselves as friends.
Teh then chimed in to say that in this day and age, people can date several people at once in order to choose their most suitable partner based on different experiences. This however shocked Guo Liang.
“It’s like a husband with many wives, or a wife with many husbands,” Tay remarked.
When Guo Liang asked how dating nowadays works, Zhang said: “Most relationships start with people getting to know each other, then holding hands, and then kissing and hugging before getting together to do other things.”
“A lot of young people these days usually switch the order, they [may] have sex first before getting to know each other. Then they decide if they want to be in a relationship,” added Zhang.
Guo Liang then described the dating scene as similar to westerners, wherein people can separate their bodies from their feelings.