For Xi Anjie, an office worker in Shanghai, the Spring Festival
holiday is a psychological torture.
At the age of 35, Xi is still single, which is really a "big
headache" for his parents and relatives, who have been pressing him
to find a girlfriend and to bring her home for the Spring
Festival.
He chose to stay at home after a brief celebration with his
parents for this week-long holiday which ended on Saturday,
unwilling to visit his relatives who have been enthusiastic in
matchmaking.
Xi is not alone. On the Xici.net, a well-known Chinese website,
more than 100 "lonely hearts ad" posters have been published online
since the first day of the Lunar New Year. Most of the marriage
seekers are ladies aged between 24 and 30.
Shen Sisi, 29, a company employee in east China's Jiangsu
Province, said she felt herself an "outsider" among her friends,
most of whom are married and often talk about marriage and children
at Spring Festival parties.
The deep-rooted Chinese tradition of getting married "at the
right age" seems inappropriate nowadays as more and more young
people choose to stay single.
Last month, a Beijing University student was offering a 1,000
yuan (US$125) for ten days of renting a girlfriend to be taken home
during the Spring Festival holiday to please his parents.
Wang Jisheng, a professor with the Psychology Institution of the
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the student is trying to
show filial piety to his parents but he is in fact only cheating
them.
(Xinhua News Agency February 25, 2007)