Key takeaways
A 28-minute Bilibili monologue by Zhineng Luzhang. Paid flirtation is booming in China: 'business rafting', pool-table hostesses, hiking escorts, romance role-play, 'sweet duo' gaming partners. The host argues this isn't sexual repression, since porn is oversupplied and Japan has both abundant porn and the most paid companionship. What people lack is a relationship where someone looks back at them. Shared neighborhoods and idle time have faded, and modern freedom to not choose and to exit breeds uncertainty. So the market sells intimacy item by item, and what it really sells is certainty. Drawing on Eva Illouz and Byung-Chul Han, he says gacha and otome games make bodies and feelings transparent and erase the Other. Delete the pain, and you delete what makes love moving.
