Bow Wow

Yesterday being the Lunar New Year, the Chinese custom of visiting loved ones to bring them wishes for the new year is still in place, but there was a mobile app that let you hire proxies who would go and literally bow to your aging relatives. Until now, that is, because the app has been taken down at the urging of the People's Daily, the Communist Party newspaper, and many others.

"Filial piety should not be commoditised," said one commenter, and so that's that. You will have to go see the old folks in person!

With all these duties and obligations by custom, there has come to be a lively business in what is called China's "hire-anyone-for-anything" service sector. And the for-hire folks were ready to deliver the goods. One advertisement showed a person in an orange uniform on their knees, bowing their forehead almost to the floor, as an elderly couple beamed with delight.

This was not going to be cheap. The bowing-to-the-old folks package would have cost  999 yuan ($144.77) but now you can just drive on over to your relatives' house and bow to them yourself.

If they're anything like American old-timers, they will have a nut dish out with all the good nuts (cashews, Brazils, pistachios) already claimed, leaving an assortment consisting mainly of peanuts, most of which have their jackets half off, like they don't want to be there either.

For those planning to come over and wish old Mark and Peggy a happy Lunar New Year, the driveway is just about clear of that snow and ice, and we have some of those tube cookies we can toss in the oven for you.

This seems like a worthwhile custom to me. The young, which I once was, should venerate the old, which I am. And when I was young, I never would have balked at visiting Uncle Albert and Aunt Halsey, as long as they were going to put out a decent spread.