Weng Biying sold more than 3,000 "good night" text messages to strangers online over the past three-and-a-half years.

Her reason was simple: To introduce a little more courtesy to people's everyday lives.

"Although the overall standard of living continues to improve, many people still lead a relatively uncultured life, which lacks both subtlety and attention to detail," said Weng, 28.

"You should say hello to the person you wake up next to in the morning," said Weng.

"You should say good night to the people you care about every night, including yourself."

Weng, who now runs a cafe in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, sold the "good night" messages from February 2012 to May on Taobao.com, China's largest e-commerce platform.

Rather than being just another faceless vendor, she added a human touch to her online trading by shedding some light on her personal feelings and activities, such as what book she was reading or her attitude toward life.

Every message was sold for one yuan (16 cents). Most of the messages, according to Weng, were sent to people the customers loved.

"Some students bought messages for people they had a crush on and asked me to keep their secret," said Weng. "Some wanted to say good night to lovers they had just broken up with. They want me to say sweet things, such as 'take care' for them."

Some people bought the messages to have a person to say good night to themselves. A white-collar worker in Shenzhen, who needed to burn the midnight oil frequently, asked Weng to text him at 2 am. He texted her what he was doing every time he got the "good night" messages.

"Every person feels lonely sometimes," Weng said. "They need someone to be there for them, to hear what they think and comfort them."

Sometimes Weng receives greetings from her customers. One of them, a man, bought 60 messages that would cover two months. Weng once sent him a message saying "Stone, good night", because he would never reply to any of her messages. Several months later, she received a postcard from a beautiful tourist attraction in Zhejiang province with the signature "Stone".

Bian Guangchun, a social critic and writer for Southcn.com, said that buying "good night" messages is not an effective way to communicate with each other.

"The messages may convey sweet and sincere feelings, but the way of expressing those feelings is negative because the buyers are unwilling to face what they need and express themselves."

cangwei@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 09/22/2015 page8)