Scan the books being snapped up at the bustling Beijing Xidan Books Plaza and you will find titles like Farewell Before Daybreak, No Farewell Before Dawn and Half-day Happiness.

All these books focus on one thorny, fascinating subject -- the one-night stand.

All these stories are told by people with experience of what is also euphemistically dubbed "one-night romance."

One-night romance or Yi Ye Qing in Chinese is a relatively new term which has appeared in China over the past two years.

Half-day Happiness by Chun Shu features vivid descriptions of the writer's one-night romance. The book has been translated into other languages and has been dubbed the "first and cruelest novel reflecting youth love" by some media.

Chun Shu's novels have seen him dubbed a rebel. "Rebel is not my ideal but my attitude to life," Chun said. "A good storyteller should be a rebel first so that he can make something totally fresh. My ideal is trying to make the world full of love."

People's definition of love clearly covers a broad range of emotions.

According to Southern China Weekend and some local media in Beijing, one-night romance exists only among young, relatively affluent married people.

The Internet is the most efficient go-between for such people.

The concept of one-night romance is usually fuelled by unfulfilling sex lives between couples or over-familianly in marriage, according to many observers.

Wang Di, 35, a married member of the media, admitted his first one-night stand came simply out of curiosity. "When I was in an Internet chat room, I got an invitation from a girl who suggested an appointment in a bar," Wang said. "I agreed and went there."

"To be frank, she was not a girl but a 36-year-old woman. She first apologized for her lie.

"She enjoys one-night romance because her husband cannot satisfy her sexual demands," Wang said.

Wang had no qualms about relaying her reasons for what many would regard as a sordid affair. He recalled: "While making love with her husband, she said it seemed like eating winter cabbage without salt, without any taste at all. It is like a walk on a familiar road without curiosity, or like a primary student who is doing a mathematics problem."

The whole concept is posing a challenge to notions of traditional Chinese morality.

Some Chinese sociologists have suggested the sexual imperatives behind the one-night stand are "abnormal."

But Li Yinhe, 52, a famous Chinese marriage expert and member of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, believes one-night love is a right of the people.

"One-night love runs against Chinese traditional morality, but it doesn't violate the Chinese law," Li observed. "It is a violation of law if you do something that the law prohibits. But Chinese law doesn't prohibit one-night love so far."

Said Li: "If you enjoy one sex partner throughout your life, that is your right. If somebody wants to change sex partner without violating the law, that is her or his right."

Generally, sex has three purposes: procreation, a bridge to build marriage or love and simple sexual satisfaction, according to Li. One-night love belongs to the third category, she says.

But Li also believes that one-night love is ultimately destructive and should not be encouraged in mainstream society.

"It can trigger crimes like murder, rape or kidnap and promote the spread of venereal disease," Li said.

Li though said it is hard to say whether one-night love is right or wrong.

"Judging it wrong or right depends on your attitude to sex," Li said. "If you think sex is good and a fascinating thing, you will have a tolerant and generous idea of one-night love. If the attitude is opposite, you will not."

(Beijing Weekend February 13, 2004)