Love and the City

By staff reporter ZHAO HAIYAN

IN recent years February 14 has become a special occasion for many urban youth, particularly those in college. With the popularity of Valentine's Day on the rise, courting couples are encountering new problems. For the majority of college students on meager budgets, the extravagant bouquet of roses – that luxurious requirement of romance – may cost them half a month's living expenses. The urban professional classes can afford to linger over romantic candlelight dinners in a Western or Chinese restaurant, but even those plans can be fumbled.

A Valentine's Day kissing contest in Hangzhou.

    During last year's Valentine's, 28-year-old Chen Gang, a white-collar professional from Shanghai, spent a romantic night whispering sweet nothings and proferring dainties and flowers to his girlfriend in a Chinese restaurant on Xiafei Road. "I tried to book a Western restaurant two days ago, but it was too late, so we've had to make do with this one," he said. The restaurant was full of lovers like themselves, so while Western restaurants seem more relevant for such a Western occasion, their comparative scarcity forces most couples to find a Chinese substitute.

    Some of Cupid's victims may choose to spend the night with their colleagues and friends in a karaoke bar, a club, or a disco. Jiang Shengxi, a graduate from Renmin University of China and a new employee with a company in Beijing, had a great 2009 Valentine's party with his colleagues at a karaoke bar. "For me, it was more a chance to have some fun than a serious festival," he explains.

    Parties and masquerades are more common among unmarried young people like Jiang. Lovers flock to romantic dance parties – swaying in the embrace of their dearest to the caress of the soft classical music. In compact foreign communities there are often Valentine's Day parties and mock carnivals.

    Jiang Shengxi has different ideas for the 2010 Valentine's. "It's also the Spring Festival Day, so I'll go home, with my girlfriend, and formally introduce her to my parents. We've told them that we'll prepare the New Year family dinner, which I think is the best gift of love and show of filial piety, and of course, I've planned some special surprise for my girlfriend after the dinner."

    Though the celebration can be omitted, the gift can't. "It's a matter of pride for girls like me to receive gifts on the Valentine's Day," confessed Huang Qianqian, a graduate from the design department at the Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology. For young singles, the day is a monument to romance and gifts are the tools that build it.

    Professor Pang Xiaopeng from Renmin University of China attributes the Valentine's sentiment to improved standards of living, which have stimulated the public appetite for spiritual feasts. Foreign festivals that interweave exoticism and commercialism in particular, are more of a curiosity and a vanity fair for flamboyant young hearts that crave the excitement.