Rent-a-boyfriend for Spring Festival

Spring Festival tales of woe are common from single Chinese friends and colleagues, with may parents stepping up the pressure at this time of year to find someone, get married and perpetuate the family line. The Global Times reported today that at least one cashed-up Beida student has come up with an innovative solution to parental pressures – rent a boyfriend for Chunjie.

The articles claims: “Last week, a female student at Peking University placed an ad, offering ‘10,000 yuan ($1,465) a day for a boyfriend to take home for the Spring Festival celebrations.’ She wrote in the ad that her parents had told her to bring a man home, or 'you can forget about coming home for the holiday,' according to ifeng.com."

In good news for foreigners looking to make a few kuai over the break and enjoy some home-style cooking, the Global Times piece also claims that “the use of foreigners as short-term stand-ins” is a new trend.

The reporter claims to have placed two ads online, one offering the services of a foreign male and one seeking a man to accompany a local girl home over the break - no doubt along the lines of this ad placed in the Beijinger classifieds.

A Frenchman who replied to the Global Times-placed advertisement said he had done this kind of “work” before, and asked for RMB 800-400 a day – a long way short of the RMB 10,000 offered by the Beida student. Perhaps French men command a lower rate? Still, 800 kuai a day for sitting around watching TV and eating isn’t bad. And who knows, if things worked out over Chunjie it might be possible to extend the contract.