China:In common with many Chinese couples, Tian Zhendong and Ding Shuhui were relying on their only son to look after them in old age, but when he emigrated they had to resort to desperate measures, writes Clifford Coonanin Shanghai
A retired couple in central China, who were bereft when their son emigrated to start a new life in Canada, placed an advertisement in a local newspaper seeking a girl to come and be their "daughter", a caring soul who would look after them in their golden years, just like a real daughter.
However, they were totally taken aback when more than 100 candidates applied.
The opening up of Chinese society, combined with the one-child policy restricting the number of offspring a couple can have, has transformed traditional family structures in China.
The country's social welfare system is underfunded and pensions are insufficient, so most people rely on their children and their savings to look after them when they leave the workforce.
A former construction expert, Tian Zhendong and his wife Ding Shuhui, a retired university professor, from the city of Wuhan in the heartland of China, told the Guangzhou newspaper they felt "lonely and lost" when their only son moved to Canada with his wife, although they did acknowledge that he called home every week.
Despite their misery, their son would not return to China to look after them.
"I regret letting him leave," Ms Ding told the newspaper.
The parents visited him in Canada but couldn't get used to the life there - a common complaint among the parents of emigrants in China, who miss their friends, their neighbourhoods and the food.
Six years after their son and his wife left, the couple decided to place the advertisement to try and find a "daughter" to look after them.
"Elderly couple desperately seek daughter".
"We are not looking for a maid, but someone to be with us until we are dead," Mr Tian said.
The adoptive daughter stands to get an apartment if she performs during the trial period of three years and the huge response to the offer shows how many young women are keen to do anything to get a place in the city and get out of their own, often stifling home situations.
What the couple describe as a "fierce competition" has entered its final stage. Having drawn up a shortlist of five from the scores of applicants, they will make a decision soon.
In traditional Chinese society, and still in many rural areas, daughters are second-class citizens, whose prospects and ambitions are secondary to those of the highly-valued son.
Even if the girl is older than her brother, the boy's education is often given priority. The huge disparity between the number of boys and girls born - 120 to 100 in some parts of China - bears out this prejudice and farmers are allowed to have a second child if the first-born is a girl.
Traditionally, a daughter-in-law in China is one of the lowest positions in the complex family structure.
While things are a lot less extreme than they used to be during the Song dynasty (AD 960-1279), when a daughter-in-law was occasionally required to
cut the flesh from her thigh to feed her sick mother-in-law, it's still a problematic role with which many modern women are uncomfortable.