Transdisciplinary Design

In the Search of Love, Relationships, and the Freedom of Choice: the Emerging Role-Rental Business in Asia

Posted on November 7, 2018

A quote that I used to put on my laptop said: “of all the wonderful gifts that we’ve been given, one of the greatest is freedom.” No matter if it is through providing new trends, products, platforms, systems, or even alternative ways of living, my understanding of design seems to centralize around the idea of maximizing individual freedom through more and more choices. With the emergence of new systems, such as the sharing economy and blockchain, new business models were designed to offer “true” freedom for everyone—by decentralizing and redistributing wealth and power, people would be able to share anything for financial exchange without going through centralized institutional and corporative platforms.[1] However, as people gain the freedom of sharing, can the unquantified (such as love and relationships) be quantified, shared, and even commoditized through these emerging systems? Are more choices of what to share equivalent to more individual freedom? I will explore and discuss the concept of freedom of choice through the perspective of the growing role rental service in Asia: a millennial-dominated business where people can hire people to play different roles as companions.[2]

More than just Companions

The first time I discovered the concept of renting roles was through Dachel Choi’s work Days You Need Love, Fortune, and Money at the Hyundai Motorstudio Beijing exhibition. Choi used calendars as a platform to showcase people who are currently renting themselves online as new products in the emerging sharing economy. The growing needs for the rental service in China are partially from the growing societal pressure to settle down and marry young.[3] The calendar is created based on big Chinese and Western festivals, which is when the rental service is greatly needed for presenting fake relationships during friend and family gatherings.[4] In this monetary short-term rental relationship, a companion can be quantified and broken down to a detailed charge: a fake boyfriend or girlfriend, for example, can be rented and charged based on hours or days. Extra charges may be applied if there are more intimate physical interactions (eg. kiss on the cheek or a cuddle).[5]

Such service is also expanded to substitute missing roles in traditional modes of relationships. In Japan, some divorced families hire people to replace the missing roles of fathers and mothers to enable their children to grow up in a two-parent family dynamic and be socially accepted by children who grow up in the traditional marriage and family mode.[6] This industry has grown to a point where people can hire any social role that they can possibly think of. While some people use this service to fill up certain cultural and social needs, some people use it for emotional companionship and comfort. This service was especially favored by young Chinese people who leave home to work alone in big cities.[7] People can simply hire people to date, eat, chat, and hang out together, and there is no need for maintaining a relationship in this service. Choi suggests, as today’s relationships become increasingly disposable and commoditized, there is the future possibility for developing this short-term rental relationship into a long-term contracted relationship to fundamentally shift how people build connections today.

To some extent, I see this emerging role-rental service and the new approach on relationship building as a form of rebellion—by putting a price tag on it, we can somehow free people from the so-called social expectation and obligation within relationships and marriage. Nevertheless, I don’t think this emerging sharing business model can really free people from the idealized social construct of love, relationship, and familial responsibility. In fact, such an approach feels more like a temporary band-aid solution that distances people from what they don’t want to face. More choices don’t necessarily mean more freedom. Perhaps, what really concerns me is the way people brand the future sharing economic model as the freedom of choice without (radically) addressing real issues we are facing. Even though the role-rental service feels cold, commercial, and superficial to me, who knows? Maybe people do find the love, care, and comfort they want in such a service. No matter if the rental relationship is fake or not, we still need some sort of companion at the end of the day. This service will continuously flourish, and it is ultimately a personal choice if we want to take it or not. Like Choi said: “Every special day, plausible lovers for future hire wait to be called. Building [a] relationship is not necessary, here. The union is disposable as you wish. But, who knows. Someones may become Julia Roberts’ or Richard Gere’s characters in ‘Pretty Woman’. Capital opens a door for you. Don’t be alone.”

Danni

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References
[1]Don Tapscott and Alex Tapscott, Blockchain Revolution (New York: Penguin Random House LLC., 2016), 35.

[2] “那些《需要爱，运气和金钱的日子》”, Hyundai Motorstudio Beijing, accessed November 2, 2018, https://motorstudio.hyundai.com.cn/beijing/newscontent/8418202033.html

[3]Daniel Holmes, “China’s Fake Boyfriends”, accessed November 2, 2018, https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/witness/2016/05/china-fake-boyfriends-160522081331610.html.

[4]Dachal Choi, “Days You Need Love, Fortune, and Money”, accessed November 1, 2018, http://choidachal.com/days-you-need-love-fortune-and-money.

[5]“Single In China? Rent A Fake Boyfriend.” YouTube video, 2:27, 6 September. 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjNKpS9XaCw.

[6]Elif Batuman, “Japan’s Rent-a-Family Industry”, accessed November 2, 2018, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/04/30/japans-rent-a-family-industry

[7]Muyu Xu and Ryan Woo, “China girlfriend rental app gets leg up from Lunar New Year demand”, accessed November 2, 2018, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-lunar-newyear-china-girlfriend-idUSKBN15A1NY