Before I start, let me announce that... I'M NOT IN SUPPORT OF THIS IN ANY WAY.
I was shocked when I saw this and wanted to know the reason behind this as a researcher.
According to www.dailymail.co.uk
'The intense social pressure to marry early in the country has seen many bachelors bringing home colleagues and friends as 'girlfriends' to meet their parents.
Now, that social trend has become a growing business on mobile apps with girls offering escort services for a fee.
The past week-long national holiday has seen a particular surge in the business as men paid up to 1,000 Yuan (£100) to hire a 'girlfriend' they barely known in a bid to please family members.
Marriage is an issue that's unavoidable and inescapable in China where it is often considered de rigueur for people, especially women, to get married by
the time they are 27.
After this nominal age, single men and women are referred to as 'leftover' - a mar on their social status.
Parents, family friends and even strangers will often and frequently ask whether someone is in a relationship, with the pressure particularly intense during national holidays such as Chinese New Year.
As a result, many singletons brought home colleagues or friends as pretend 'girlfriends' or 'boyfriends' to dodge their parent's questions for another year.
But the increasingly widespread phenomenon has created an emerging market of renting 'boyfriends' or 'girlfriends' through social media apps such as WeChat, the Chinese equivalent to WhatsApp. Individuals would rent themselves according to a set fee for social scenarios such as dinner, shopping trips or meeting the parents.
Fees will vary from 100 Yuan (£10) per day to more than 1,000 Yuan (£100) at the upper end.
While the situations are intended to be platonic only, there has been reports of instances of prostitution as well as fraud and rape.'
If you are/were a bachelor in China will you rent a girlfriend to meet your parents?