国产热热热精品,亚洲视频久久】日韩,三级婷婷在线久久,99人妻精品视频,精品九热人人肉肉在线,AV东京热一区二区,91po在线视频观看,久久激情宗合,青青草黄色手机视频

   

Chinese fall hard for imported holiday of Valentine's Day

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-02-14 19:34

Changing values

No one remembers exactly when Chinese began to celebrate Valentine's Day, but until the 1980s, love was not a topic for open discussion among the Chinese, who translated "Valentine's Day" into "Lover's Day" or even "Mistress' Day", with a mixed feeling of curiosity about this Western novelty and a disdain for public exposure of private life.

Thirty years ago, no Chinese couple would show the least intimacy in public and even holding hands was taboo. Not to mention factors other than love: to be rich or to have a relative aboard, for example, were taken as "defects".

In early 1981, China's first classified ad appeared in a Beijing-based newspaper, with a 40-year-old school teacher looking for a wife. Ding Naijun, from the southwestern Sichuan Province, posted a photo wearing dark glasses and declared his monthly salary was 43.5 yuan. Today, that's a pittance -- about US$6 at current exchange rates -- but it was about the average income level of the time.

More than 270 women responded. Within a year, Ding had married a 28-year-old teacher from the northeastern Jilin Province. Their only 'dates' were monthly letters.

In the 1980s most lonely bachelors proudly declared their status as members of the Chinese Communist Party and occupations as drivers and seamen and listed "love for literature" and "non-smoking" as a plus.

Today, those putting up classified ads are almost always bragging about their big apartments, expensive cars and overseas education -- things that appear too good to be true for many who are seriously looking for a spouse.

Behind their fears are some phenomena that have sprouted with China's booming market economy and three decades of opening up, in particular, corruption, which can lead to an obsession with money and keeping a mistress.

Maybe it's not a coincidence after all that the Chinese translated "Valentine's Day" as "Mistress' Day".

In several cities, private detectives (whose work remains illegal in China), are asked by desperate housewives to tail husbands who shopped and dined with mistresses over the holiday.

This year's Valentine's Day, in particular, was overshadowed by the exposure of photos that purportedly showed Hong Kong actor and singer Edison Chen in bed or other sexually suggestive poses with several female stars.

The photographs, copied from Chen's computer when it was serviced last year and later distributed over the Internet, sparked a media frenzy in Hong Kong and the mainland alike.

Despite public anger at the pop idols involved, many on the mainland just shrugged off the scandal as "disgusting" and "that's life".

   1 2 3   


Top China News  
Today's Top News  
Most Commented/Read Stories in 48 Hours
莒南县| 鲁山县| 芦山县| 石泉县| 仲巴县| 普格县| 龙川县| 章丘市| 南京市| 昌平区| 合阳县| 汕头市| 兰西县| 肃北| 雷山县| 曲阜市| 海城市| 台江县| 景德镇市| 德惠市| 疏附县| 郓城县| 健康| 资兴市| 勃利县| 大姚县| 鸡东县| 巴塘县| 调兵山市| 石棉县| 鄂托克旗| 大邑县| 大城县| 云霄县| 巴青县| 肃宁县| 余干县| 巫山县| 疏附县| 和顺县| 武夷山市|