Living in balance

Victoria Beckham recently celebrated her 50th birthday. Over the years, the pop star and fashion designer has built a reputation for strict self-discipline, maintaining a consistently fit physique and elegant image.

However, in a May interview with Grazia fashion magazine, Beckham revealed her decision to ease up on calorie control and shared her newfound perspective on life.

In the conversation, she reflected on often being portrayed as a "stern-faced ice queen". While she believes this image doesn't truly represent her, she has become less concerned with others' opinions as she ages.

She remembered a newspaper photo after her first childbirth that had arrows pointing to areas where she needed to lose weight. "Those things can affect how you feel and conduct yourself in public," she said. "Now it doesn't bother me in the same way."

Beckham is now embracing her complete self, finding a balance between strict routines and relaxation. "I'm very disciplined with the way that I eat, the way that I work out, and the way I work. That's just who I am," she said. "But I do like to have a drink, and I'm not going to be one of these 'Ah, there are too many calories in a glass of wine' types. Whatever. Life's too short. Let's have a nice time."

Unmasking love's secrets

A wave of videos analyzing potential matchmaking candidates has recently emerged on Chinese social media platforms.

The creators of these videos present themselves as experienced analysts in the matchmaking industry. They often display brief information about matchmaking candidates, submitted by their audience, on a whiteboard, and then start analyzing the hidden aspects behind these descriptions.

In one video, for example, a female client shares details about a 31-year-old man who is 1.78 meters tall and runs his own business. While initially appearing decent, the analyst reveals various possible shortcomings of the man: the absence of weight information could hint at potential health concerns, and his entrepreneurial venture indicates an unclear financial situation, which may bring monetary risks.

Many viewers react to these revelations with amusement, enjoying the unexpected twists in the storyline, while many are also eager to learn techniques for uncovering deception in intimate relationships through these videos.

However, as reported by The Paper, some videos use a pre-written "script" to create dramatic turns.

"Evaluating whether someone is suitable for a lifelong commitment cannot rely solely on brief text," psychologist Chen Zhilin told Yangtse Evening Post, a newspaper in Nanjing. "Attempting to draw definitive conclusions through standardized analyses is unreliable."