KUALA LUMPUR:\u00a0While hiring boyfriends to bring home for Chinese New Year is a legitimate business in China, in Malaysia, men are offering themselves up for public hire as a joke — and in some cases, being taken seriously.
One of them is 26-year-old Zeann Jian, who had offered to play the role of dream boyfriend to introduce to «concerned» family members for RM88 (US$20) a day, RM188 (US$42) a reunion dinner or RM888 (US$200) for the entire festive season.
Among the services he offered, according to a Facebook post, were finishing leftovers from his date’s plate, answering difficult queries from aunties, calling his date’s parents Pa and Ma, providing a photo album of himself with his date and even pretending to be engaged to be married.
Zeann had intended the post as a joke, but ended up receiving more than 100 messages from people — both male and female «from all races» — trying to hire him.
«It was a joke among friends. I wanted to lighten up the mood for Chinese New Year,» he told Channel NewsAsia.
Zeann’s post, which has been shared more than 4,000 times, has spanned other iterations from Malaysian men offering to be the ideal Chinese New Year partner.\u00a0
At least three other Facebook users have put up similar non-serious ads on their profile, promising to «chit chat with uncles (because most of their topics are not a problem for me)» and kill cockroaches, lizards and other pests that might come near the dinner table.<\/p>\n