Pig Man Pushes Qixi Gift-giving

The pink pig balloon industry is, no doubt, one of the industries behind the effort to establish the Qixi Festival as the Chinese version of Valentine's Day. "Scholars and business people" are calling for this traditional celebration of the devotion between a cowherdsman and a fairy seemstress to have some officialness pumped into it. The Japanese and other Asian countries have more or less gone along with a slightly modified version of the Western holiday. It remains to be seen whether St. Valentine's Day (already celebrated by China's city youth) or Qixi becomes the big profit opportunity for China's purveyors of balloons, candies and fancy dinners. (photo by G-man)