Busy working single Chinese people heading back to their parental home for the Lunar New Year holiday and wishing to fend off persistent questioning about their love life can now hire a man or a woman to pose as their partner, just to maintain family harmony over the festive period.
The fee charged by young people, often students, hiring themselves out for such purposes can range from 500 yuan (U.S. $76)/hour to upwards of 1,200 yuan (U.S. $183), on top of all expenses including travel, meals and accommodation, online advertisements reveal.
According to websites dedicated to the service, the prices are set according to age and physical appearance, and bookings can be made by smartphone app, official media reported.
The Beijing Youth Daily interviewed a young man nicknamed "Xiaolei" who said he had turned to the app after a female colleague let him down at the last minute.
"I've already promised my mother I'd take a girlfriend back home this time," the paper quoted him as saying.
"The time slots available, location, professions and photos of the boyfriends and girlfriends for rent are clearly listed," the People's Daily Online reported.
"Services range from having meals together and chatting, to traveling together and pretending to be boyfriend or girlfriend and visiting parents," it said.
Hubei-based author Liu Yiming said the phenomenon is linked to three decades of the "one-child policy," which ended at the start of this year.
"It has to do with the fact that the sex ratio is skewed, and also with the fact that there are a lot of singles generally in urban areas," Liu said.
"They talk about left-over women, but they're not a social problem; it's the left-over men who are a social problem," he said. "A lot of men whose social status is quite low and who don't have much money are finding it very hard to find a partner."
"The practice of renting a girlfriend to take back home has a lot to do with this," Liu said.
"Also, a lot of parents are putting pressure on their sons and daughters to get married as soon as possible, so a lot of people just want to avoid that discussion [at New Year]," he said.
China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, the two Koreas and Vietnam ring in the Year of the Monkey on Feb. 8, the start of the Lunar New Year.
Indicator of social chaos?
Xiao Jiansheng, an editor at the Hunan Daily News, said the practice has been around for a while, but has become far more widespread recently.
"There is a confusion about social morals in China right now, and then there are economic factors as well," Xiao said.
"There's no single reason for it, but it's an indicator of social chaos."
Xiao said there appears to be no moral limit in China at the moment.
"The officials certainly don't have a limit on what they will do, so why would ordinary Chinese have one?" he said.
"The officials transfer state assets [overseas or into their own hands], they keep mistresses, and they take bribes," Xiao said.
"If they are immoral, then the people will be too."
He said there is also a growing market in surrogate pregnancy, for large fees.
"If you have money, you can get a surrogate mother ... or she will be your mistress, whether that's mistress No. 1, No. 2, No. 3 or No. 4."
China ushers in the Year of the Monkey with a traditional family reunion meal on the night of Feb. 7, accompanied by bursts of firecrackers to ward off evil.
The coming year is associated with the color red and the element fire, as well as rapid change and financial events, according to traditional Chinese astrology.
Reported by Qiao Long for RFA's Mandarin Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.