Chinese site rents a fiance

ISTANBUL

Thanks to Taobao – the Chinese version of eBay – and the inventiveness of a Chinese entrepreneur, single Chinese females can rent a boyfriend to take home for the lunar New Year, according to an article in the daily U.K. Financial Times (FT).

Chatting up the parents is included in the price, while hand-holding and hugging sometimes cost extra. The boyfriend-substitute can even share a bedchamber with the customer, if the female thinks it might help persuade doubting parents. There seems little limit to the ingenuity of the companies that provide this service: Some even offer to waive the fee if the girl and guy share the same bed, according to the article. Zhu Sheng, 27, is one of the Taobao entrepreneurs dedicated to filling this gap in the Chinese matrimonial market. He says he got the idea from a movie in which a man rents a contract girlfriend to take home for New Year’s.