Chinese women rent boyfriends so as to parade them before relatives

Renting a boyfriend for that crucial holiday meal with the parents, as is apparently being offered by websites in China, could be the best solution yet to the knotty issue of family ties in the modern era. The fact is that the people mummypapa beam at approvingly may not be exactly those of their offsprings’ dreams. And vice versa.

Rather than risk any inherent mismatch spoiling such rare occasions as holiday get-togethers, a faux beau is the best bet, Chinese women seem to have discovered. The temptation to rent rather than buy, so to speak, is not surprising as Chinese websites offer custom-made boyfriends at very competitive rates (around $50 a day) and internet searches for ‘rental boyfriend’ have risen by nearly 900% in recent times there.

That every activity, including shopping and squabbling, is available for varying supplementary fees on top of the basic boyfriend rate and foreign options are also possible demonstrates the lengths these service providers are willing to go, in order to satisfy customers. Moreover, since getting real partners to go along to family gatherings is generally deemed to be difficult given the invariable eligibility scrutiny that ensues at such soirées, finding an enterprising escort who can weather it just for short periods or specific events makes sense all round.