Money can’t buy you love but it can buy things in China that may not be on the market in some other countries — such as a surrogate drinker-cum-sexual harassment decoy for your wedding, in the form of a bridesmaid for hire.
For a sum so small that it wouldn’t buy wedding favours elsewhere, Chinese brides can rent a professional to show up at 6am on the big day to cluck over their hair do and giggle about the wedding night, just like in all those western wedding movies.
Professional bridesmaids are rare in other countries, where they seem to be a mutation of the wedding planner. But in China they may have to get drunk on the bride’s behalf, handling ritual toasts in her place as she moves from table to table at the reception; provide scripted emotional support for a woman whose friends are too busy building the Chinese dream to attend; and bear the brunt of the traditional teasing, flirting and sexual innuendo that some amateurs these days are unwilling to stomach.