asia

“Don’t talk about relationship, it’s just a deal.” That is not only a dialogue in the new released Hong Kong film Flying Swords of Dragon Gate, but also the description of a recent phenomenon that single men and women rent a girlfriend/boyfriend to go back home with them to celebrate Chinese Spring Festival.

For young bachelors, the seven days Spring Festival means not just the reunion with families, they need to face the pressure driven by relatives to take a girlfriend/boyfriend home, especially for those who is working far away from home. However, there’s always a solution to this pressure. The internet gives them a quick way to rent a friend.

To rent a girlfriend/boyfriend was not common several years ago. But this Spring Festival, many Chinese online shopping websites emerged some services to have people act as boyfriends and girlfriends, meeting the demand of some young adults.

The online sellers will put on their real pictures for customers to choose. After confirmation, sellers and buyer will arrange a rehearsal to make them look and act like a real couple and to prevent spilling the beans in front of family members.

A famous Chinese Groupon website Meituan had a lottery game, the present of which is that the winner can rent a girlfriend/boyfriend from the staff of the website free of charge. They also provide free accommodation and transportation. According to the website, there were almost 170,000 people participated in this game.

Screenshot from Meituan.com, winning a boyfriend/girlfriend to go home

How much to rent?

Taobao.com, a Chinese ebay website has prices for this service from 200 to over 1000 RMB per day. Except from playing couples, they also provide special services such as showing love before ex, cooking, going to groceries, keeping accompany with old people and even worshiping ancestors, a very special service.

But if they are asked to drink alcohol, the price is charged by the amount of drinking. For example, a Taobao seller gave his price as 50 RMB for drinking 100 ml white wine, 70 RMB for 100 ml red wine, 20 RMB for 500 ml beer.

While all the renting services have a must-not-do explanation, which is that customer must not do things like kissing and making love.

This phenomenon reveals that the new generation of China has changed their thoughts to traditional culture. Some sociologists warned young people to be very careful about doing this kind of things which may contain potential safety problems.

On the other hand, stories based on this phenomenon have been brought to TV in recent years since it is becoming a very attractive and controversial topic. There is idol drama in 2010 called renting a girlfriend to celebrate Spring Festival, in which two strangers made a deal to please their families and ended up becoming a real couple.

This may reflect the thoughts of some customers: creating a possible opportunity to find the other half. After all, who knows what’s going to happen in the future?

Although it appears to be very hot on internet to rent friends, there are only a small proportion of people who really rent. A survey conveyed by sina.com shows that nearly 70% people are against this indeed. CCTV also points out that very rare people buy the service on Taobao.com.

A female netizen’s opinion is welcomed by many people that she is not going to rent friends because relationship cannot be measure by money. “Finding a partner is for me, not for other people”, said her. Even in this era in which relationship can be consumed as fast as instant food, true love is still the forever theme of mankind, no matter what your age, gender and nationality.

Source: Zaobao

I tweeted an Instagram photo the other day, but here’s what my new skateboard looks like, the “Girl” deck from Lesque. Will try and get some wheels on it this weekend to go for a spin. Again, huge thanks to my homie Ian for hooking me up!

Annnd, the CNY celebrations continue on. STD has a Fortune Dragon New Year's Party, a celebration of Aussie day, some deeeeep house for you techno lovers plus a last chance to catch some art shows closing this weekend. And if that's still not enough, head over to our calendar for more. [ more › ]

brique=1043">2011/2012 Press Freedom Index released by Reporters Without Borders, China almost skirts the bottom at number 174 out of 179 possible spots. This places them one measly notch higher than Iran (175), who is just coming off the 2009/2010 election protest involving rampant violence between the media and government, and 22 places below Iraq - the country responsible for the most reporter killings (151) in the last two decades. In an equally frightening bit of trivia, just two years ago the same slot was occupied by North Korea! [ more › ]

The cover-up has come to an end! Prime Minister Noda has removed his eye patch:

He’d been wearing the patch for the last two weeks:

Complete with patch – more surgical than piratical — the premier later explained to reporters that the self-inflicted blow came in the dark as he rushed to try to pick up an unexpected call.

“The phone suddenly rang in the middle of the night,” the prime minister explained, “so I got up and rushed to get it, and then bumped into a pillar.”

Now he’s just wearing makeup to hide the bruises.

—

• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• Dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

Danny Choo: グッドスマイルカンパニー: グッドスマイルカンパニーでの撃ち合わせの休憩時間の間に、素敵なオフィス内の写真を撮ったりしていました。その後はMax Factory経営のインド料理屋「印度亭」でディナー。... http://t.co/m4u68woj

What Japan Thinks: Little awareness of Internet TV or Google TV in Japan: http://t.co/lzpf1Cz7 recently reported ... http://t.co/RmYkcxXB

I often think to myself, “Why can’t I play video games while I urinate?” Sure, I could sit down, but that’s just time wasted. Thank God Sega exists. Set to debut in Japanese bars (BRILLIANT!), Sega has introduced the Toylet, a console that allows you to play games, using your urine to control the games. [...]

Mari's Diary: Aikido: Aikido; Japanese bujutsu to avoid fight. The foreign guys is Nicolas Pettas is Greek-Danis... http://t.co/kFCAmI5l

Konbini Life: Doing so is simply because it does improve you disguise the green circles: best eye creams When yo... http://t.co/LwkwPAWh

Loneleeplanet: All Eyez On Loco: Influential blogger Baye McNeil (a.k.a. Loco) of Loco In Yokohama notoriety rec... http://t.co/CuxpGFYu

A weib currently making the rumor mill rounds has it that Sister Feng (凤姐), a woman remarkable for the severity of her delusional demands on husbands-to-be being matched only by the severity of her overbite, is going to star in a Japanese AV film. [ more › ]

Japan Times: Britain rides Nissan to auto industry revival: Britain's auto industry, which lost its last major h... http://t.co/BbJoP6h6

Swifty Writing: Rest in peace, Theo Angelopoulos: Yesterday, just like many other times, I woke up to the beepi... http://t.co/sgp72DbZ

Foreign automotive media were eager to announce that the Buick Excelle was the best selling car in China in 2011 yesterday, the truth is yes – it’s a popular car, but no it wasn’t the most popular.

The problem here being a translation issue, the China Assosciation of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) did announce that the Excelle was the best selling car in 2011, however the problem lies with Buick’s naming system. In the Buick line up their are three Excelles, one is the older generation which was a Daewoo designed model and also had some Suzuki input, oddly it also had a Holden designed engine in the Chinese market, this older Excelle was known as the Kai Yue in Chinese and was facelifted in 2008 to bring it up to style, it currently only comes with a 1.6L model paired to an automatic and manual gearbox.

The second and third Excelles are known as the Ying Lang in the Chinese market, the hatchback is the Ying Lang XT whilst the saloon is the Ying Lang GT. Both are based on the latest generation of Opel Astra, the GT variant being the Buick Verano in the US market. So which sells better? Obviously it is the first Kai Yue Excelle rather than the newer versions which only share an English name.

A brief look at December 2012′s sales indicate that the Kai Yue outsells its rival XT and GT models by a large factor – 13,846 Kai Yue’s were sold (down 19.13% over Dec 2011 Figures), in the same month just 6,250 GT’s were sold and only 2,131 XT’s were sold in the same period showing that despite the massive upgrade in quality and style for the latest generation of Excelle’s, the old Kai Yue is still a strong seller and obviously a great gateway into the Buick brand. The Kai Yue may look like a limp fish amongst Buick branded Opel’s in Chinese Buick dealerships, but it is obviously holding the brand up high thanks to its low pricing, from just 100,000rmb ($15k USD) you can own a Buick, where as the XT and GT are priced high from 134,000rmb to 184,000rmb.

Share your photos with us on the go via Instagram using the tag #shanghaiist. [ more › ]

Alafista: 1/8 Miki Sayaka PVC [GoodSmile Company Ver.]: GoodSmile Company has commenced preorder for the scaled... http://t.co/tNjue5nZ

Kirainet: Kaneda Jacket, 30th Anniversary of Akira: Bandai is selling Kaneda’s jacket to celebrate the 30th anni... http://t.co/1pGLgWTb

The latest generation of VW Jetta will hit the market in March 2012 according to recent Chinese media reports, the new Jetta will be sold under the Sagitar name plate as with the last generation of Jetta as of course the second generation Jetta is still on the market in China.

The new Jetta will come with the same 1.4T, 1.6 and 1.8T engines as the current Sagitar and is expected to hit the same price brackets when it comes onto the market, the turbo models will get 7 speed DSG gearboxes. Pricing is expected to be from 148,000rmb to 180,000rmb, FAW-VW are also expected to introduced a 2.0T model which of course will be the GLI version.

 

Lobsang Sangay, Kalon Tripa of the Tibetan government-in-exile, comments on the recent shootouts on Tibetan protestors in the first few days of the Chinese New Year, and calls upon Tibetans to halt celebrations of Losar, the Tibetan New Year. Transcript after the jump... [ more › ]