介绍:
Lincoln: In China, some young people have started to rent a girlfriend or a boyfriend to go home with them for the New Year festival. Wu You, you’re going to have to explain to us exactly what’s going on here.
WY: The Chinese Spring Festival is approaching, and at this time, lots of Chinese family relatives will always ask young people these kinds of questions: “Do you have a boyfriend or girlfriend? Why do you still not have a boyfriend or girlfriend? So when will you have a girlfriend or boyfriend? Why have you not got married yet? You see my neighbour, he has already got a grandson. Why haven’t I got a grandson? So when will you have a girlfriend or boyfriend?” So all those kinds of questions really drive young people crazy, and this time, a new service has come up: the rent-a-partner service seems to be a business during this New Year festival time, when some young people are pressed by their parents and their relatives to bring their girlfriend or boyfriend back home. However, lawyers in China warn that such kinds of deals are not protected by law, and recent years have witnessed many related disputes. Some young people are renting a stranger to appease their relatives’ endless questions.
Lincoln: To be honest with you, this sounds like the plot of quite a generic romantic comedy from the late 90s or something, with Meg Ryan.
Michael: And Hugh Grant as the disinterested boyfriend.
Lincoln: Who’s constantly babbling! This is quite a strange life-imitating-art thing. Michael, what do you make of it?
Michael: I’m quite interested by this. I’ve heard of this happening before. You know what, I find this absolutely fascinating. I would love to be a rent-a-boyfriend for Chinese New Year. I would love to see what that’s like, and what that entails, because I’ve heard of agencies being set up where they can put you in touch with people who want to fulfill the role of boyfriend or girlfriend for the sake of appeasing people’s parents, and I wonder if there’s different categories, you know, if you can specify where you want your boyfriend or girlfriend to come from. I wonder if there’s some people who would be quite taken by the idea of an exotic rent-a-boyfriend.
WY: In your advertisement, you can say: “Do you want a foreign boyfriend to take home?”
Michael: Well, exactly.
Lincoln: I think Michael could make quite a good bit of coin on the side for himself there.
Michael: Exactly, and because I don’t speak Chinese, I’ll never have any direct questions to answer.
Lincoln: Even better. That’s quite interesting. Everyone, good luck going forward into the new year, especially if you are single, if you’re out there looking for love, Michael has very graciously offered himself up.
Michael: Don’t say it like that! Sounds like you’re putting me on a plate. It’s all hypothetical, it’s all hypothetical.
Lincoln: Hypothetically, Michael, how much are you charging? 3000 yuan? Is that on the low side? I think you can go for four thousand.
Michael: Yeah. I mean, I’m imported. I’m imported goods.
Lincoln: We’re looking at a discount. He’ll give you a fapiao as well.
