Being single during Chinese New Year is no fun.

Especially for those who get incessantly ragged by relatives to get hitched soon.

Terence Cao, whose mum and aunt have sought to lend him a helping hand in the love department, has not been spared the lectures either.

He came close to being married in 2010 but the wedding was called off by his fiancee.

The local actor, who is not attached at the moment, said that although he loves his mum dearly, she has been relentless about finding him a wife for as long as he can remember.

He revealed that she had even wanted to get him a mail-order bride from China, Vietnam or Cambodia.

Cao, 46, told The New Paper: "It (my mum asking me to find a wife) will never stop.

"She said 'Son, it's all right, she can be a foreigner. I don't need you to love anyone but you will have someone to take care of you when you are old'.

"She also said that if I didn't get married, I will be lonely in the later part of life.

"I reassured her that I was fine because I had her and she's the most amazing mum. I like to pick her brains about things, she has a refreshing way of seeing the world."

Cao said that he was shocked when his mum, Madam Lucy Tan, who is in her 60s, brought up the topic of a mail-order bride some time back. He told her that he would not consider it as he could not accept the fact that these women were willing to marry him out of necessity.

A mail-order bride is a woman who lists herself in catalogues and is selected by men for marriage.

QUALITY OF LIFE

Said Cao: "Most of these mail-order brides want to come here to find husbands because they need to survive and don't enjoy a good quality of life back home.

"The language barrier as well as the difference in cultures will also be difficult to get past.

"I'm still going to look for a partner the old-fashioned way."

What he is open to, however, is being set up on blind dates.

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