The Week Jan 14, 2011

Wanted: A train ticket home

The Spring Festival is fast approaching, and people are lining up to buy train tickets to go home to visit their families during this most important festival in the Chinese calendar. That will mean more pushing, shoving and grumbling at crowded train stations. If only someone would play happy music, which had this effect at one train station in Europe.

Ads that go viral

Internet websites such as ChinaSmack.com this month are looking back on the popular advertisements of 2010.

A yoga club in Shanghai became famous when this low-budget ad for Guangyin Yoga Club featured a man inside a box handing out business cards.

Another ad that went viral was this action-packed ad by IBM in China that featured kungfu and even a few Star Wars moves.

Wanted: A fake fiancée

Because Spring Festival is almost here, some young men are hiring fake girlfriends to take home to meet parents who are pressuring them to get married. China Daily this week reports that one young man offered to pay 400 yuan for a woman willing to pretend to be his girlfriend for just one day. Let’s look in on one business that specializes in serving these desperate young men in search of a fake girlfriend to take home for the holiday.

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About the broadcaster:

Renee Haines is an editor and broadcaster at China Daily. Renee has more than 15 years of experience as a newspaper editor, radio station anchor and news director, news-wire service reporter and bureau chief, magazine writer, book editor and website consultant.