The Matchmaker is responsible for arranging marriages and evaluating potential brides and grooms. Thus, she holds a great deal of influence, as women of the time are believed to uphold family honor only by marrying and bearing children (especially boys).

Did China really have matchmakers?

Chinas matchmaking tradition stretches back more than 2,000 years, to the first imperial marriage broker in the late Zhou dynasty. The goal of matchmakers ever since has usually been to pair families of equal stature for the greater social good.