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What's love to got to do with it? The vagaries of Valentine's Day in China

I grasped the exorbitantly priced bunch of red roses a little tighter as a sudden breeze threatened to undo the year’s first attempt at romance. Having just been relieved of my weekly salary, it was proving harder than usual to focus on love, sweetness and all things amorous. And, judging by the miserable faces of several Chinese boys I passed, all holding similar bouquets in Olympic torch-like style, it was obvious that the battle between a full heart and an empty wallet was not mine alone.

Once puritanically critical of any occasion that paraded love, China has now fully embraced Valentine’s Day—as with Christmas, another “imported Western festival”—as a succession of consumer opportunities sugar-coated in romance. Today, Valentine’s Day in China means vogue. It means multi-coloured roses and heart-shaped Ferrero Rocher, pricey “lover’s menus” and booming business for fashion brand names, whose signature bags now hang on the arms of many a proud Chinese female.

Despite the accusations (mainly from male of commercial exploitation, it’s a brave man that denies his young Chinese partner the full Valentine’s treatment. Never before have I had to keep such a close eye on the calendar, lest I forget some festival dreamt up the year before by a florist in Kunming or a chocolatier in Guangdong. Do I need to start buying my girlfriend wurst for Oktoberfest or chimichangas on May 5? It’s enough to reduce a man to insomnia and penury in equal measure.

On a more serious note, the growing popularity of Valentine’s Day has not only been criticized by men bemoaning the financial cost. Many Chinese feel that western holidays are becoming too prominent in China, to the detriment of their country’s own cultural heritage. While it may have passed you by unnoticed, China actually does have its own version of Valentine’s Day, called Qixi, which will be celebrated this year on August 7.

The unique date of Qixi, which is also known as the “Festival of the Double Sevens” or the “Daughter’s Festival,” is derived from a popular Chinese legend that narrates the story of a beautiful seventh daughter of the Emperor of Heaven, who incurred her father’s wrath by marrying a lowly cowherd called Niu Lang. In a tale worthy of the weepiest Chinese soap opera, the couple were separated by a river of stars, allowed to meet only once a year on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month.

For one, I am sad to see Chinese festivals gradually eroded by western imports, especially since these imports have become such tacky and grasping parodies of the original celebrations. For all the expense, I don't begrudge my girlfriend her special Valentine’s moment, but I’d much rather be ripped off for the "double sevens" than in February.