Chinese rent dates to stay single

Among the hundreds of millions of young Chinese couples heading back to family homes for the Lunar New Year holiday this week, some have a secret — they are travelling not for love but money. 

Young Chinese from smaller towns and villages still face withering parental pressure to marry in their early twenties, and some pay good money to hire the right type to bring home and please anxious parents, at least for a few vacation days. This rent-a-date trade springs up on China’s Internet bulletin boards around the week-long holiday, fuelled by harried professionals looking for a pretend partner who will smile and say the right things.

“Girl friend wanted, will pay per day,” wrote one man surnamed Wang, on the popular Baidu website (tieba.baidu.com). “Requirements: pretty, good body, around 1.6 meters, under 23-years-old. Please contact me if you are interested.”

The 25-year-old, who declined to give his full name, grew up in a rural part of central China’s Henan province and now works in a steel plant in Chengde, a city North of Beijing. Wang was still comfortably under the average age for marrying in big cities — about 29-years-old for men and 27 for women. But coming from the rural backwoods — where the average marriage ages are 23 and 22-years-old respectively — he faces pressure to pair up. “I’ve just graduated from college and have no money. Its unrealistic for me to date a girl,” he said. “But if I went home without a girlfriend, my parents will be worried about me.” 

Wang said he had paid 80 yuan per day ($12) for his rented partner, as well as travel and accommodation costs. Another single who advertised on another website bj.58.com said he paid 1,000 yuan ($150) to take a stranger he met online to his home in Liaoning province in the country’s cold northeast.

There is no lack of women also looking for a temporary escape from prodding parents. “Because my parents are getting quite pushy, this year I want to find a high quality male partner to accompany me to my old home in Shandong for the festival,” said one aspiring Internet dater, referring to the province in eastern China. “If you are not sincere, don’t disturb my life, thank you.”