Chinese Matchmaker Career (Cultural Diversity)

Created for MTS Multicultural Create Competition.

BACKGROUND

For thousands of years the most effort and time the Chinese parents invest into their children is spent on finding them a suitable future spouse. From the moment the baby was born (or even before that), parents were already constantly looking out for possible matches for their newborns. Aside from matches about social rank, economic rank, and literacy rank, the one match Chinese parents were most concerned with is the so-called ‘Eight-Word’ match. Chinese believe that a person’s life is pre-determined by his/her Eight-Word. Eight-Word is almost like fingerprint and is unique for each person, it is the combination of total eight Chinese characters from the year (two characters), the month (two characters), the day (two characters), and the hour (two characters) a person was born.

All these characters are based on the five Elements (strong Metal and soft Metal, strong Wood and soft Wood, big Water and small Water, big Fire and small Fire, and tough Earth and dusty Earth), the ten Heavenly Posts (Gap, yue, Bin, ding, Mu, gei, Gang, sun, Yum, guay), and the twelve Ground Supports, which is twelve zodiac signs (ji, chau, Yanh, mau, Sun, ji, Ng, mei, Sunn, yau, Shuek, hoi). Words with capitals letters in Heavenly Posts and Ground Supports are Yang (or bright), and words with small letters are Ying (or dim). It was calculated that there are about 50 millions possible combinations for each set of Eight-Word. Depending on how these eight characters are combined and their relative positions in a set, the outcome of a person’s fate will be significantly different. Even today in the Chinese community, people with a miserable life often blame it on having been born with a bad set of Eight-Word, or attribute their successful life with being born with a good set of Eight-Word. Chinese astrologists claim that they can foretell a person’s whole life by examining his/her Eight-Word. So Chinese treat their Eight-Word like the American treat their social security number, it should be kept secret and never revealed to anybody.

It is unlikely that a person’s Eight-Word would contain all five Elements, to compensate for the missing Element, Metal for instance, people would want to marry someone whose Eight-Word happens to contain Metal. Sometimes lacking a certain Element is actually a good thing for a particular person, then he/she would avoid marrying someone whose Eight-Word contains that conflicting Element. This is where the Chinese matchmakers come into play, they are the middle persons who are skilled in obtaining people’s Eight-Word and try to match people up. Chinese matchmakers usually are late middle age women who are extremely outgoing, enjoy gossiping, being a busybody, talkative, persuasive, and knowledgeable (at least in the field of Chinese astrology, though not necessarily an expert).

With the influence of the Western culture, newer generations especially those who are born in the United States don’t care much about Eight-Word anymore (many of them don’t even know of the term). They chose to marry whoever they love, if their Eight-Word conflicted with each other, they ignored it, if their Eight-Word were in harmony, that was a bonus. However, many countries in Southeast Asia, especially in small towns and villages, people are still care about matching Eight-Word, and use Chinese Lunar calendar when looking up an auspicious day for getting married.

I adapted this career for the Sims 2 game, to the best of my knowledge, the Chinese Matchmaker career has never been done before. It is EP ready, has its own GUID, its own custom career icon, does not overwrite Maxis’ careers, is available for all adult sims, do not require a university degree, has 10 chance cards (loaded with more Chinese culture), sims wear everyday clothes to go to work, career reward object is the Mini Golf, has been playtested through all 10 levels, and satisfies aspiration want with top memory. Enjoy!

Explanation of the custom career icon: The icon is a Chinese character of double happiness. On the wedding day, this symbol is displayed in many places inside the house (such as right at the center of the living room and above the bed in the bedroom), and on the front doors right outside the house. The word is painted in color gold with an auspicious color red as a background (as shown on the advertisement page), but in game the double happiness character is displayed in Maxis blue with a transparent background so that it is consistent with other careers’ icons.

Credits:
Custom career icon made by me.
SimPE.
Custom Career Creation Procedures, A Step-By-Step Guide V0.05 compiled by Psion and related forums found at modthesims.info, and demos found on youtube.

CAREER LEVEL AND DESCRIPTION

Level 1. Maid. 160 simoleons, M T W Th F S 4pm-9pm

You are a nobody, getting a job as a maid doing all sorts of scrubbing and cleaning your master’s house so that you can get your feet in the right place and secretly observe your master practice her Chinese astrology.

Level 2. Cook. 280 simoleons, M T W Th F S 4pm-9pm

You gain enough trust from your master, from now on you will be responsible for getting groceries and preparing meals.

Level 3. Bookkeeper. 395 simoleons, M T W Th F S 4pm-9pm

You now have enough charisma to finally convince your master that you do have the talent and patience needed for learning and mastering the Chinese Lunar calendar as well as the Chinese Almanac. Your master agreed to train you these skills but you must do bookkeeping and accounting for her.

Level 4. Examiner. 550 simoleons, M T W Th F S 4pm-9pm

You have become really good now, your master agreed that you are ready for some real Chinese Eight-Word lessons, you must learn from examining her clients’ Eight-Word documentations, making sure that none of the potential couples have any contradicting Elements, and try to match together those clients whose Eight-Word are in harmony.

Level 5. Personal Assistant. 700 simoleons, M T W Th F 10am-3pm

Whenever your master is not around, you are in charge. You now can perform most matchmaking jobs with minimum supervision. You are gradually gaining popularity as well.

Level 6. Matchmaker. 850 simoleons, M T W Th F 10am-3pm

You are being recognized as an official matchmaker. Whenever people look for a spouse with a perfectly matched Eight-Word, they come to you. Whenever people need advice on naming their newborns, they come to you.

Level 7. Small Town Matchmaker. 950 simoleons, M T W Th F 10am-3pm

You are now one of the top matchmakers in your town. But don’t stop here, a better job is yet to come.

Level 8. Big City Matchmaker. 1100 simoleons, M T W Th F 10am-3pm

You are so well known that you even get clients from big cities across the world. Those parents of the one-child policy generations want everything to be the best for their only child, Your job is more important than ever, remember if you run into trouble, don’t forget to use your career reward object.

Level 9. Celebrity Matchmaker. 1200 simoleons, M T W Th F 10am-2pm

You are now spending most of your time on helping celebrities to find the perfect spouse, you are now so good that you are able to convince them that their previous five unsuccessful marriages were due to their incompatible Eight-Word.

Level 10. Internet Matchmaker. 1450 simoleons, M T W Th F 10am-2pm

Your reputation as a matchmaker has grown so large that you can’t possibly meet with all the people demanding your attention, so you started your own a matchmaking website equipped with high-tech software that can check people’s Eight-Word in milliseconds, you no longer need to meet with your clients face to face. Instead you now spend most of your time on training apprentices and passing on this fading Chinese tradition to the next generation.

Thanks for viewing, enjoy, and happy simming.

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