Bringing (Insert Name Here) Home for the Holiday in China

BEIJING â€" In China’s inventive marketplace, where there’s demand, there’s supply; unattached women can even rent a boyfriend over the approaching Chinese New Year to keep the relatives quiet.

With that holiday, the country’s biggest, looming in February, young men are offering themselves on Taobao.com, China’s eBay, as companions for women heading home and dreading being grilled by older relations about their love life and marriage prospects. So entrenched is said grilling, in a society where women are expected to marry in their mid-20s and anyone over 30 is definitively “on the shelf,” that there’s even a phrase for it: “cuihun,” or “urge marriage.”

As for the boys, just as in life, there are all sorts.

On Taobao, this man, who didn’t give his name but supplied a photograph, said he was born in 1991, was a ..A. student, an extrovert, 170 centimeters (5 feet 6 inches) tall and 60 kilograms (132 pounds), offered a relatively simple list of extra services.

“Boyfriend for rent, 300 yuan a day, holding hands and hugs free, appropriate kisses 50 yuan, talking to old people 30 yuan an hour, others we’ll talk about it when we meet,” his post said. Also: “accommodation and transport costs paid by the woman.”

Often, services are worked out in minute financial detail. This man, charging 800 renminbi ($128) a day, had a long list of extras: shopping (15 renminbi per hour or 150 a day, minimum two hours); chatting (10 renminbi an hour or 100 a day); watching a movie (10 renminbi an hour, double for horror films); attending parties (20 renminbi an hour, will not go to dangerous places). And he charges for drinking, based on the spirit content (drinking alcohol is de rigueur for men at festive banquets): 100 re! nminbi per 100 millileters of white spirits, 50 renminbi for 100 millileters of red wine, 20 renminbi for 500 millileters of beer.

Just in case you’re wondering if it’s all for real, or just a cruel hoax â€" it’s apparently true, with even people.com.cn, the racier, online version of the Communist Party-run People’s Daily newspaper, carrying a report.

Showing a picture of a young man with striking cheekbones posing romantically in what appears to be a snow flurry, but may just be artwork, a reporter for the China Economic Net wrote: “Spring Festival is approaching and young, single women must go home, to once again face their elders’ ‘urging marriage.’ Under these circumstances, quite a lot of ‘boyfriends for rent’ have quietly appeared on Taobao,” with “prices clearl marked and real photographs.”

The article gathered reactions. “There’s nothing that can’t be bought, just things that can’t be thought of,” wrote a person with the online handle Wangshen 777.

“This money is earned too easily!” wrote someone with the name Xiao Zhang.

Citing “people in legal circles,” the article warned, “people are not goods and these kind of rentals violate public order and good customs. Neither the buyer nor the seller can receive legal protection and any agreements reached between them are not valid,” it said, warning that there could be significant “security risks” in such a situation.

Underlying this all is the massive pressure young Chinese women face to marry as early as possible, the result of a strongly patriarchal society, feminists and sociologists say.

In a recent report, “Single and Over 27: What the Chinese Government Calls ‘Leftover Women,’ ” Public Radio International reported on Huang Yuanyuan, stressed at the prospect of turning 29 without a boyfriend.

It looked at how the state and society in China stigmatize “educated women over the age of 27 or 30 who are still single,” according to Leta Hong Fincher, a PhD candidate in sociology at Tsinghua University in Beijing, who has studied “leftover women,” writing about it in The New York Times.

How did Ms. Huang feel about her birthday, asked PRI

“Scary. I’m one year older,” she said. “Because I’m still single. I have no boyfriend. I’m having big pressure to get married.”

And so, for some women, the market provides.

Bloody End to Algeria Hostage Crisis

Stories from The New York Times on the violent denouement of the Algerian hostage siege -- and the ongoing war in Mali.

The Mali That Was

Alas, poor Mali. Finally it is getting some sustained world attention, only to be widely depicted as a benighted sandbox full of killers on camels.

Nine months back, I wrote with more wishful thinking than reasoned analysis that Mali might find its way back to the kaleidoscope culture, easy tolerance and boisterous democracy that had made it one of my favorite places on earth. Fat chance of that now.

As a kid in Tucson, Arizona, I fantasized about ancient adobe splendor in Timbuktu. I nearly got there in 1969. The Air Mali (Air Maybe, more commonly) plane was about to touch down, but a sudden sandstorm obscured the runway.

Instead, I explored dramatic Bandiagara Cliffs of Dogon country, near Mopti, The Grand Mosque at Djenné (above) and spice-scented markets ablaze in colo at Segou.

At a party in Bamako, I heard a guy named Toumani Diabati play magic on a stringed kora. By the time Malian music got famous, and Ali Farka Touré recorded “Talking Timbuktu” with Ry Cooder, I’d gotten to the exotic old city again and again.

This is not a travelogue; it’s a lament. Web chatter and guesswork reporting are predicting that a few French Legionnaires, African troops, and some air strikes will push Islamist zealots off the map. Don’t count on it.

The sandbox portion of Mali is twice the size of France, dappled with caves and rocky outcrops, across which Tuaregs have traveled for a millennium. Religious fervor and Qaeda campaigns are only part of it. Mali is at war with itself, a nomadic north against a sedentary south.

One dispatch from a distance called Tuaregs “the blue people,” which brings to mind that popular trio of painted entertainers.

Those Blue Men of the Desert are nam! ed for the indigo that dyes their turbans. They are very tough dudes, whose victories and losses are not easily tracked as “breaking news.”

My last trip to Timbuktu was to find a sheikh who had heard voices and led his faithful band 100 miles across the dunes, far from any water or shade. When I found him, he vowed to stay. For all I know, his camp is still there.

Up the Niger River, Gao is a vital crossroads. If government forces run occupying intruders out of the town, that is a hopeful sign. Perhaps French muscle might recapture Timbuktu before crazed zealots destroy more ancient treasures that offend their brand of Islam.

But beware of optimism from townsfolk watching skirmishes who manage to get off a tweet or a phoned comment to news desks in Europe and America. Rebels melting away into trackless desert do not necessarily mean defeat.

Endemic smoldering in the north had been fanned into flame even before so many jihadists sought refuge when Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi fell. Al aeda hardliners, uprooted from other places, had made inroads. Their religious zealotry was added to old secular grievances.

Some of us may think the world starts each morning when we turn on our computers, and each crisis we focus on has a definitive beginning and end. That’s seldom true anywhere; certainly not in northern Mali.

In the best of times, people eked out tough survival in widely scattered oases and villages. Now many have fled. Timbuktu bustled, in its somnambulant way, with tourists and travelers. We can only surmise what it is like now. But, for sure, carefree couples no longer sip sundowners by the guesthouse pool.

A reporter should know better than to speculate about the future, especially about shape-shifting societies in West Africa. But I suspect it will be a long time before travelers will again be listening to those koras and talking Timbuktu.

Poland\'s Push for Human Rights

BERLIN â€" Without Poland, there would be no European Endowment for Democracy. The E.E.D., which I write about in my latest Letter from Europe, will become a new and much-needed source of funding for pro-democracy individuals and groups in Europe’s eastern and southern neighborhoods.

The foundation is the brainchild of the Polish government, especially Radek Sikorski, the foreign minister.

The center-right government in Warsaw believes that it is the moral and political obligation of the European Union to support people who strive for human rights and freedom, especially in the countries along its borders. After all, these are the union’s defining values.

Values matter a lot to Poland. An E.U. member since 2004, Poland has never been complacent about democracy and freedom.

Polish policy is not just about helping its Eastern neighbors become stable, prosperous and democratic so that they can providea buffer zone against Russia, or encourage Russian democracy activists. Poland wants these conditions for people in North Africa and the Middle East too.

That is why, when Poland was heading the union’s rotating presidency last year, it campaigned hard to get the idea of the E.E.D. accepted. It wanted the foundation to be free of E.U. bureaucracy and internal politics. It wanted to show those striving for democracy that Europe still had some strategic goals for its eastern and southern neighbors.

Poland also wants Europe to have a strong defense and security policy so as to defend its values and become a serious global player.

France desperately wants that, too. But the meager support offered to Paris by E.U. member states after François Hollande, the French president, sent fighter aircraft and troops to northern Mali indicates that much of Europe is not really interested in having a strong, common defense and security policy.

This is not just about supporting France milit! arily, either.

The conflict in Mali has consequences for Europe, including the export of terrorism and criminal gangs to the European continent, and rising numbers of refugees.

The attack this past week by radical Islamists on the gas fields in Algeria shows the urgency of the threat.

Yet as Poland and France have shown, each in its own way, in today’s Europe national governments have to go it alone before getting even some support from the other E.U. states.

Greens Outside - and Inside - the Tent at Davos

This week, the town of Davos, Switzerland once again moves into the international spotlight as business, government and social leaders meet for the 43rd World Economic Forum.

As the world’s elite meet to debate this year’s theme, Resilient Dynamism (as well as to network in the oft-ridiculed cozy embrace of exclusivity), those who don’t have all-access passes to the official meetings, will use the occasion to call attention to their causes.

One of the most memorable protests at last year’s annual WEF was a very small demonstration at the security barrier outside the congress halls entrance. Members of Femen, a feminists group from Ukraine, braved the cold Swiss winter to protest topless, sporting slogans that read: “Gangster Party in Davos” (above) and “Poor Because of You.”

This year, too, environmental and social activists have promised to be present in the town normally known for its winter sports.

On Thursday, the second full day of the meetings and talk shops commonly referred to as just “Davos,” the Public Eye Awards will be handed out to “the worst Company of the Year” at a press event.

Organized by Greenpeace and the Berne Declaration, a Swiss NGO, “The Public Eye Awards mark a critical counterpoint to the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum” according to their website.

Two prizes will be announced during the day’s session, one chosen by a jury and another based on the results of an online poll among “the seven worst” corporate offen! ders, explained Michael Baumgartner of Greenpeace.

This year, the event, which was first organized in 2000, includes a lecture on the role of financial institutions in bad business.

Corporate Justice, a coalition that is calling on the Swiss federal government create ethical business laws, is holding a demonstration on Wednesday afternoon. The organizers, which include the Swiss chapter of Amnesty International, want laws that prevent multinationals headquartered in Switzerland from engaging in human rights or environmental abuses.

Here’s a Corporate Justice petition campaign video that ran last year:

Regional politics also promise to play a small role at Davos. The Green Party of Davos is calling on its members to be part of the “traditional” anti-WEF demonstration, planned for Saturday.

Protest actions, demonstrations and parallel programs are not generally as visible at Davos as at other high-level global meeting..

Nevertheless, access to the event â€" which can cost paying participants as much as half a million Swiss Francs, roughly $535,000 US â€" is well guarded. According to news reports, fighter jets will secure the airspace and more than 5,000 Swiss troops will secure airports, streets and buildings to guarantee the safety of the participants.

Although not planning any on-the ground protest action, Oxfam has released a report on income inequality to coincide with Davos.

And while demonstrations and marches still take place outside the official sessions and semi-official networking of Davos, heads of major environmental organizations are more likely to be found inside the security perimeter than outside.

The head of Greenpeace international, which is also co-organizing t! he Public! Eye Awards, tweeted to his followers:

Like other civil society leaders, Mr. Naidoo will be in high-level meetings with business and political leaders.

IHT Quick Read: Jan. 21

NEWS Algerian security forces combing the scene of a bloody four-day hostage siege discovered “a good 20 bodies,” some badly burned, at a gas-production complex deep in the Sahara. Adam Nossiter reports from Bamako, Mali.

With only his family beside him, Barack Hussein Obama was sworn into office for a second term on Sunday in advance of Monday’s public pomp, facing a bitterly divided government at home and persistent threats abroad that inhibit his effort to redefine America’s use of power. Jackie Calmes reports from Washington.

Greece has been dealing with an outbreak of violence in recent weeks, following several months in which such activity seemed to have calmed. On Sunday, a crude bomb exploded at the country’s largest shopping mall in a middle-clss suburb of Athens, injuring two security guards and escalating a wave of attacks that have gripped the nation’s attention. No immediate claim of responsibility was made. Liz Alderman reports from Athens.

France, seeking fresh ways to raise funds and frustrated that American technology companies that dominate its digital economy are largely beyond the reach of French fiscal authorities, has proposed a new levy: an Internet tax on the collection of personal data. Eric Pfanner reports from Paris.

Austria may have few enemies and no wars to fight, but a majority of its citizens believe that their country is better served by a military filled with conscripts, instead of a smaller, more mobile professional force, according to the initial results of a referendum held Sunday.Melissa Eddy reports.

Two years ago, Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, told an audience in Davos that people should stop picking on bankers. Mr. Dimon is still waiting for his wish to come true. Bankers, always a big presence at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss city of Davos, arrive this year under less regulatory pressure and with better profits than in past years. But they are still on the defensive. Jack Ewing reports from Frankfurt.

ARTS Across Europe, music is once again fueling protests, strikes and sit-ins. In a twist on the 1960s, it is the music sellers, rather than the listeners, who are up in arms. Eric Pfanner eports from Paris.

Improbable though it seems to us in an age when we can shoot and screen not only slide shows, but mini-movies on our phones, the real Carousel was hailed as a dazzling innovation when Kodak introduced it in the early 1960s. Alice Rawsthorn on design.

EDUCATION Last July, Regent’s College was granted degree-awarding powers by the British government. Next month, the school, which has about 3,700 full-time students, expects to receive university status, which would make it only the second private university in Britain. The focus An American-style liberal arts education. D.D. Guttenplan reports from London.

FASHION As the men’s season ends, shows continue to emphasis the change in male clothing. “It is ! about the! metamorphosis of tailoring â€" created from the roots,” said the Berluti designer Alessandro Sartori, standing in the vast Great Gallery of Evolution at the Museum of Natural History. Suzy Menkes writes from Paris.

SPORTS If Novak Djokovic stumbles in his quest for a third straight Australian Open title, he will still have another adrenaline rush to savor after a marathon victory against Stanislas Wawrinka. Christopher Clarey reports from Melbourne.

Svetlana Kuznetsova is ranked No. 75 in the world, but she has earned a date with No. 1 Victoria Azarenka after each won Monday. Christopher Clarey on tennis.

Anyone who has been followin the sports news in recent days might despair of the ethics, or lack of them, espoused by a certain cyclist from Texas. On Sunday, however, we were reminded that, in soccer anyway, the same state has produced Clint Dempsey. Time after time, Dempsey has scored priceless goals for club or country. His decent, honest opportunism may be old-fashioned, but it was again a match-saving quality Sunday. Rob Hughes on soccer.

IHT Quick Read: Jan. 21

NEWS Algerian security forces combing the scene of a bloody four-day hostage siege discovered “a good 20 bodies,” some badly burned, at a gas-production complex deep in the Sahara. Adam Nossiter reports from Bamako, Mali.

With only his family beside him, Barack Hussein Obama was sworn into office for a second term on Sunday in advance of Monday’s public pomp, facing a bitterly divided government at home and persistent threats abroad that inhibit his effort to redefine America’s use of power. Jackie Calmes reports from Washington.

Greece has been dealing with an outbreak of violence in recent weeks, following several months in which such activity seemed to have calmed. On Sunday, a crude bomb exploded at the country’s largest shopping mall in a middle-clss suburb of Athens, injuring two security guards and escalating a wave of attacks that have gripped the nation’s attention. No immediate claim of responsibility was made. Liz Alderman reports from Athens.

France, seeking fresh ways to raise funds and frustrated that American technology companies that dominate its digital economy are largely beyond the reach of French fiscal authorities, has proposed a new levy: an Internet tax on the collection of personal data. Eric Pfanner reports from Paris.

Austria may have few enemies and no wars to fight, but a majority of its citizens believe that their country is better served by a military filled with conscripts, instead of a smaller, more mobile professional force, according to the initial results of a referendum held Sunday.Melissa Eddy reports.

Two years ago, Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, told an audience in Davos that people should stop picking on bankers. Mr. Dimon is still waiting for his wish to come true. Bankers, always a big presence at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss city of Davos, arrive this year under less regulatory pressure and with better profits than in past years. But they are still on the defensive. Jack Ewing reports from Frankfurt.

ARTS Across Europe, music is once again fueling protests, strikes and sit-ins. In a twist on the 1960s, it is the music sellers, rather than the listeners, who are up in arms. Eric Pfanner eports from Paris.

Improbable though it seems to us in an age when we can shoot and screen not only slide shows, but mini-movies on our phones, the real Carousel was hailed as a dazzling innovation when Kodak introduced it in the early 1960s. Alice Rawsthorn on design.

EDUCATION Last July, Regent’s College was granted degree-awarding powers by the British government. Next month, the school, which has about 3,700 full-time students, expects to receive university status, which would make it only the second private university in Britain. The focus An American-style liberal arts education. D.D. Guttenplan reports from London.

FASHION As the men’s season ends, shows continue to emphasis the change in male clothing. “It is ! about the! metamorphosis of tailoring â€" created from the roots,” said the Berluti designer Alessandro Sartori, standing in the vast Great Gallery of Evolution at the Museum of Natural History. Suzy Menkes writes from Paris.

SPORTS If Novak Djokovic stumbles in his quest for a third straight Australian Open title, he will still have another adrenaline rush to savor after a marathon victory against Stanislas Wawrinka. Christopher Clarey reports from Melbourne.

Svetlana Kuznetsova is ranked No. 75 in the world, but she has earned a date with No. 1 Victoria Azarenka after each won Monday. Christopher Clarey on tennis.

Anyone who has been followin the sports news in recent days might despair of the ethics, or lack of them, espoused by a certain cyclist from Texas. On Sunday, however, we were reminded that, in soccer anyway, the same state has produced Clint Dempsey. Time after time, Dempsey has scored priceless goals for club or country. His decent, honest opportunism may be old-fashioned, but it was again a match-saving quality Sunday. Rob Hughes on soccer.