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Rental Lovers' Enjoy Popularity in China
During China's traditional Lunar New Year Holiday, shops close down as people travel to go back to their hometown. But one new entrepreneurial venture is booming: rental lovers.
Out of China's 13 billion population, 8 billion are from the rural countryside, which stick to tradition firmly. And this poses an interesting problem for young men and women who work in urban areas and now need to return home to see their family in rural China.
Besides gifts to offer to their parents, they need to show them one more: a boyfriend or a girlfriend.
In China's rural villages, for example, if a girl brings a guy home for the Lunar New Year before she's 25, her family saves face. But if she remains single into her late 20s, "people will think she's abnormal and gossip that she might have some disease and can't get married," International Herald Tribune (IHT) cited Jiang Wenjun, 63, a night watchman at Renmin University in Beijing, as saying.
The "shame" attached to not having a lover in rural towns among young people has led to a new profession: rental lover.
In the Chinese Web sites, there are thousands of advertisements looking for temporary lovers "for hire" for the holiday.
For instance, a 28-year-old woman runs an ad, wanting a man who is "educated, employed, well-behaved and between 170 and 180 centimeters, tall. Glasses ― a sign of erudition to her father ― a plus," according to IHT.
The ad continues: "The successful applicant would earn 5,000 renminbi, or $735, for the 10-day home stay during the Lunar New Year holiday.
Importantly, she also adds: "We will not sleep together."
Zhao Xudong, dean of the sociology department at China Agriculture University in Beijing, told IHT that renting a fake lover "shows that Chinese traditions still play a role in people's lives. But it also shows that our young generation is smart, using capitalism to solve major problems facing our society and culture."
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