Shanghai white collars are tired of shifting from one party to another that focus on making friends with some boring party games. Some 1,000 white-collar workers in Shanghai’s Pudong Zhang Jiang Hi-Tech Development Zone recently proposed a new idea for parties. Instead of focusing on making friends, people attending these parties should come to share their same interest. A youth forum was established in the Zhang Jiang Hi-Tech Development Zone on Tuesday and the first interest party attracted some 160 white collars to come, the Shanghai Youth Daily reported.

Most of the white collars coming to the party work in the development zone. After calling a day, people come to the party by twos and threes.

Most of the young people attending the party here work in the same field and they are actually in the same age group. However, we usually have few chances to talk with each other face to face, not to say attending parties,” said Mr. Xi, who decided to attend the party once when he learned of the news. He told our reporter that he had attended some other parties before, and most of the parties were actually matchmaking gatherings which made him feel uncomfortable. This party, however, attracted people sharing the same interest, therefore it might bring more fun to the participants.

Most people attending the party were divided into different groups based on their interest. Some 10 white collars joined a “film dubbing” group. Here dubbing fans were further divided into small groups, with a man and a woman forming a pair. Each pair dubbed for the film, The Promise. Sometimes audiences would be amused by the performance and at other times, they applauded the pair’s perfect coordination.

The party lasted for nearly three hours and some people still felt excited about it when it ended. One of the participants Ms. Zhou told the reporter that the party was indeed very interesting. People could chat with each other more naturally here since they all had the same interest. This was the first time for her to attend a party like this.

Sociologist Yu Hai from Fudan University expressed his approval for the party. Although the interest party is, in fact, another form of social gathering, he said, young people would feel more comfortable with this kind of social activities. And it might perhaps help them find their ideal lover more quickly than other kinds of parties, he said.