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Wanted: Rental Boyfriend for Lunar New Year
By DAN LEVIN

BEIJING — The woman in the picture looked cheerful enough, but her words posted on an Internet message board spoke of desperation:

“I’ll be 28 this year, which I think is a normal age to be single, but my parents back home have been harassing me every day to get married. I promised I would bring home a boyfriend for New Year’s, but I’ve been too busy with work and haven’t found one. I don’t want to let my parents down, so I’ve decided to rent a boyfriend to come home with me.”

Her criteria for eligible bachelors were fairly demanding. They should be educated, employed, well-behaved and between 170 and 180 centimeters, or 5 feet 7 inches to 5 feet 9 inches, tall. Glasses — a sign of erudition to her father — a plus. One other thing: “Don’t be too skinny.”

The successful applicant would earn 5,000 renminbi, or $735, for the 10-day home stay during the Lunar New Year holiday, also known here as Spring Festival. Lest candidates get the wrong idea, the woman also wrote: “We will not sleep together.”

The Lunar New Year, which begins Sunday, is the most important day in the traditional Chinese calendar, and New Year’s-related travel in China is the largest annual migration on earth, with 2.5 billion journeys expected as most of the country’s 1.3 billion people return home. For many Chinese in their 20s and early 30s, though, the prospect of joining their families for the holiday is tinged with dread. Confucian ideals of filial piety entail respect for elders and ensuring the bloodline, and they know they will have to politely endure the nagging of nosy parents who will loudly and frequently wonder why they have not yet settled down and produced a grandchild.

But some Chinese hope to quell the harassment with a little high-technology-inspired deception. In recent years, thousands of “rental lover” ads have popped up on Web sites as young people turn to the Internet in the hopes of hiring a counterfeit boyfriend or girlfriend to fool their families during the high-anxiety visit home. Even more numerous are ads by people offering themselves up as the rented co-conspirator.

“Lots of young people are so busy with work and study nowadays that their social circle is limited, so it’s getting harder to find a ‘Mr. Right,”’ said Su Fei, 25, a doctoral student in Shanghai who posted one of the ads.

Chinese in their 20s are the first to come of age under the country’s one-child policy, which only adds to the familial pressure to produce a descendent. Ms. Su thinks duping her parents is worth any accompanying pangs of guilt so she can buy time to develop her career. That said, she dreads becoming what is known here as a “leftover girl” — a professionally successful woman who cannot find a hu*****and.

“I need someone to comfort my parents over the holiday so that they can have their own life, rather than worrying all day why I can’t find a boyfriend,” she said.

Jiang Wenjun, 63, a night watchman at Renmin University in Beijing, provided some insight into the thinking of many Chinese. “In villages, if a girl brings a guy home for Spring Festival before she’s 25, her family saves face,” he said. But if she remains single into her late 20s, “people will think she’s abnormal and gossip that she might have some disease and can’t get married.”

Young men are also conflicted between filial obligation and individualistic impulse. Ma Ying, 24, who posted an ad offering himself as a rental boyfriend, acknowledged that his parents would be disappointed if he did not come home. But he said the potential for adventure was too tempting to pass up.

“It’s hard to choose between being an obedient son and meeting a pretty girl” willing to pay for his train tickets, meals and cigarettes, said Mr. Ma, a marketing professional from Shanghai. He justified the ruse by saying any possible rental-arrangement would bring him closer to his goal of eventually settling down.

“I want to gain some experience meeting a girl’s parents so that when I have a real girlfriend, I’ll know how to handle the situation,” he said.

The possibility of renting a significant other for the holidays has titillated the Chinese public since a film titled “Contract Lover” was released in 2007. In real life, though, finding someone who can play the role convincingly can be difficult.

According to a 2008 account in The Changsha Evening News, a graphic artist who hired a woman to pose as his girlfriend found the experience nightmarish when the woman began mixing up her story, first saying she was a teacher, then a student, and then giving different hometowns.

“When she got excited she’d forget the lines we’d prepared, making me break out in a cold sweat,” said the man. “I was constantly on guard to clean up her mistakes. What was supposed to be a nice vacation was harder than going to work.”

While many Chinese disapprove of this seasonal “industry” as a violation of hallowed Confucian values, others see it as proof that ancient morals remain relevant in contemporary China.

Zhao Xudong, dean of the sociology department at China Agriculture University in Beijing, said renting a fake lover “shows that Chinese traditions still play a role in people’s lives. But it also shows that our young generation is smart, using capitalism to solve major problems facing our society and culture.”

Like any entrepreneurial venture, however, success as a rental lover takes marketing savvy and a competitive edge. Zhao Yong, 23, a sales clerk in Guangdong Province who cannot afford the trip home, said he had successfully rented himself out twice and hoped to do so again this year.

His advice? Be flexible on price and keep an open mind.

“As long as she needs a boyfriend, I have no conditions,” he said. “The customer is queen.”