Single Chinese rent dates to appease parents during Chinese New Year

Single Chinese have come up with an innovative way to please their parents during the annual Lunar New Year holiday - they are renting fake dates. According to the AFP (“Chinese rent dates to appease parents”) and already noted by other bloggers, advertisements have been posted all over popular web portals like Baidu.com by young Chinese singles seeking to pay other young men or women to come home with them for the Spring Festival – the most important family holiday in China. One such ad posted on Baidu.com under the headline, "Looking to rent a girlfriend,” read:

500 yuan (73 dollars) a day, you don't have to sleep with me, I can sleep on the floor in the same room, but you have to be a good actress.

Another ad posted on Chinaren.com under the headline, "desperately looking for a girlfriend to go home with me for Chinese New Year,” read:

I haven't yet found a suitable girlfriend and my parents are pushing too hard… I'm searching for a girl around 23 years old (and not more than two years below or above that), 160 to 175 centimeters high, average looking is OK.

To all of the ad posters and single Chinese out there, we would like to simply say: Gung Hay Fat Choy! (and good luck to those who did not find a date!)