Got your chocolate and champagne? As one of China's many festivals for expressing love and affection*, Valentine's Day is always a cause for celebrating in the world's most populous country. But if you're finding that "love is blind" and Cupid's aim isn't on target, that could be due to this year's Valentine's theme: "smoke gets into your eyes."
First things first: Valentine's Day this year in Beijing will be hit with heavy smog. Beginning last night and hanging low until Wednesday, the local forecast calls for severe air pollution. The smog will be so bad that incoming traffic from the capital's suburbs has already been restricted for February 15; violators will be hit with fines of 100 yuan and point deductions.
But getting a clear perspective has never been important for Valentine's Day in China, especially considering the popularity of blue roses.
Costing an average of twice the price of red roses (that are themselves inflated for February 14), blue roses are a premium item that cost an average of 12 yuan per stem and 200 yuan per bouquet. And, they happen to be completely fake.
Although they exist as a product of gene-splicing efforts in 2009, blue roses sold throughout China don't tend to be the real thing. Even though the Chinese media have been warning the public about the forgeries since at least 2014, Chinese consumers are still willing to pay top dollar for the unnatural flora – complete with glitter sparkles.
Hoping to dissuade consumers this year, Chinese media are revealing the mysterious method of making blue roses in China. A video below published by the People's Daily show an elderly couple unceremoniously dipping withered stems of ordinary roses into a can of blue paint.
But, it may all be for nothing. Even before the blue rose reveal, popular do-it-yourself online videos have been showing users how to make fake roses of their own. And what's not to like about a product with the added value of an unusually long shelf life?
But even if Chinese consumers aren't being obfuscated by smoke, one angry Chinese woman sure is venting a lot of it.
A online video (see below) that has gone viral in China with over 26,000 views shows a man getting revenge on his girlfriend with cold malice. Upset that she cancelled his account for an online video game, the man records a video of himself destroying all of her cosmetics – right before they were to go out to celebrate Valentine's Day.
The man is seen dumping expensive brand name cosmetics like Chanel and Clio down the drain in retaliation. But despite its numerous views, many netizens expressed their doubts over the video.
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Images: Weibo