The Chinese state-run publication Global Times described in a report on Wednesday digging into other people’s trash for luxury items a new St. Valentine’s Day “trend” in China, warning potential scavengers that garbage is unhygienic and the practice may spread disease.
Chinese culture features its own traditional day to celebrate romantic love, the Qi Xi Festival, held on the seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar. This year, that holiday will take place on August 22. Unlike other non-Western nations – particularly Muslim Southeast Asian countries – the Chinese Communist Party does not prohibit or discourage the celebration of love on February 14, St. Valentine’s Day, despite its origins as a Christian saint’s feast day.
In China, couples celebrate the holiday by gifting each other flowers, jewelry, and lavish gifts, as well as sharing a fancy dinner, particularly in wealthier parts of the country such as Shanghai. Chinese media attempted described the holiday this year as a success for the floundering Chinese economy, struggling after years of city-wide lockdowns starving out regional populations, riots in locked-down factories delaying production, and a birth rate collapse that has deeply jeopardized the country’s economic future.
“Sales are expected to be at least twice as good as normal for Valentine’s Day, buy one get one free. We’ve got teddy bears, lollipops for our customers,” a milk tea shop owner in Chengdu told China’s state-run CGTN television channel. CGTN described malls as the top destination for Valentine’s Day shoppers, decorated in over-the-top flower displays and offering discounts on chocolates.
Spending this year was reportedly so lavish, the Global Times reported, that Chinese social media users began recommending to each other dumpster diving on the night of Valentine’s Day for gifts from rejected paramours.
A woman poses for a photo with a red rose installation near a metro entrance on Valentine’s Day on February 14, 2023 in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province of China. (Photo by Tang Fangxiao/VCG via Getty Images)
“This Valentine’s Day, several screenshots, although their authenticity cannot be verified, went viral on social media platforms,” the state outlet detailed. “Netizens claimed to have found gold bracelets, cash in red envelop[es], or even iPhones hidden in flowers dumped in rubbish bins on commercial streets.”
“According to people with such experience, the best time for treasure hunt is after 8 pm but make sure not to arrive too late as other hunters could get ahead in the search,” the newspaper detailed. “Where to wait is also important, and Sanlitun in Beijing, IFS in Chengdu and Shanghai IFC are the hotspots, as high-end restaurants and stores can be found in those areas.”
While apparently instructing readers how best to rummage through other people’s trash for rejected romantic gifts, the Global Times also noted that garbage can spread disease. China is the origin nation of the Wuhan-origin coronavirus and experienced a massive wave of death in December that it largely denied but experts outside the country attributed to viral spread.
The Times made the warning by citing an alleged “netizen,” a social media user, who claimed his local government in Hebei province sent out a warning against digging through trash “as they may contain bacteria and virus.”
Valentine’s Day garbage picking became a large enough trend to make it to multiple online news outlets in both China and neighboring Taiwan. Shine, the online sister website of the Chinese state-run Shanghai Daily, described Chinese citizens sharing tips and particularly impressive finds from the garbage throughout Tuesday night and Wednesday on regime-controlled social media sites.
“Instead of being sad and lonely on Valentine’s Day, why not pick flowers out of trash cans and sell them?” one social media post asked.
Users shared their preferred scavenging spots, boasted of finding money and luxury items, and one “netizen” reportedly “offered a detailed map of [their] treasure hunt and a timeline in Shanghai.”
Some citizens did not limit themselves to digging for trash to resell. In one case that went viral on Chinese social media, a man in Jiangsu province found a bouquet of red roses allegedly containing about 52 flowers and gifted them to his wife on Valentine’s Day, reportedly being honest with her about their origins. Online users joked that the man was suicidal but, according to his own update, his wife was thrilled with the gift – and having saved money.
“We’re married anyway, so it doesn’t matter,” she reportedly said.
Another anecdote posted online of a similar gift did not end so well, however, when the gift recipient was confronted with the original owner of the flowers. An anonymous user, apparently a woman, described a situation in which her husband brought her flowers on Valentine’s Day – a suspicious move, as he had not done so in the past.
The woman alleged that another woman kept staring at her flowers and later insisted that she had thrown away that very bouquet, embarrassing the original poster.
The woman claimed to call her husband at work for an explanation, but he allegedly hung up on her.
SET News, the Taiwanese broadcaster reporting the story, did not verify if the anonymously posted story was true, or where it occurred.
The trend appears contained to communist China, although images circulating on Taiwanese social media led some to believe similar finds could be in their country, as well. Taiwan’s Eastern Broadcasting Company clarified that posts claiming to show elaborate bouquets in the garbage in Taiwan were actually images from China, as indicated by the size and design of the trash cans on the street.