Friday was Valentine's Day. I'm sure many couples had a romantic encounter that evening.
But we don't know how many of them were lovers celebrating their first Valentine's Day, how many were old married couples or how many have found this year that they celebrate it with someone new every year. Or even worse, how many people betrayed their husband or wife by spending the day with another?
What is love? Different lovers celebrate different Valentine's Days. We all have our own way of celebrating Valentine's Day. Some will spend it in a romantic setting, while others will spend it enjoying wild, exciting sex. There are also those who will let a small red rose show their love for their lover and there are of course also those who will display their love with a big diamond ring.
This year, however, some of the media's darlings have parted ways with their former sweethearts. For example, Huang Yi-chiao (
They are certain to have had differing experiences this Valentine's Day, their past strong emotions and intimacy long dissipated. This truly makes us wonder how we should find that rare, eternal partner in today's world.
What is love? Isn't it to love someone deeply, without hatred or blame? But what are today's lovers trying to achieve? True love? The love for sex and money? Pure love as described in Chyong Yao's (
Some youngsters with a budding interest in another person are extremely eager to go directly to bed and make love. The love of adults add the confusion of pecuniary gain to sexual temptation. A rose or a piece of chocolate do not sufficiently express one's feelings, and nothing but gold or diamonds, a gold watch or a beautiful and luxurious apartment will satisfy the demands of the other.
But sexual love is only a matter of a temporary pleasant sensation. When the sexual orgasm is over, it all turns into nothingness. The love for money only amounts to materialistic satisfaction, which will never be fully satisfied.
How could these two fleeting varieties of love help us find an eternal lover? Unchangeable love? Lovers only looking for sex will therefore change lovers when sexual desires no longer are satisfied and lovers following their material desires will change lovers when their material desire is no longer satisfied.
Put another way, does modern man no longer hope to find an eternal lover and unchanging love because it is boring and unexciting? As the gulf between "love" and true love widens, what is there to celebrate about Valentine's Day? What kind of Valentine's Day is it when a straight forward "I love you" no longer sufficiently describes the mutual love between lovers, but love must be replaced by sex, materialism and cold, hard cash?
Why not simply change the name to "sex day" or "material desire day"? That would put the name more in line with its meaning.
Chinese Valentine's Day on "double seven" day (the seventh day of the seventh month on the lunar calander) was originally supposed to be a celebration of couples in the world who had finally married to become a family.
Why do we need to marry when an eternal lover already is an unattainable goal? In the end, all that is accomplished is the addition of another estranged couple.
Lu Chien-chi is a professor of philosophy at Huafan University.
Translated by Perry Svensson
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