Sohu, via Eastnet, today publishes a breathless account of the increasingly popular phenomenon of wife-swapping in Guangdong. An "insider" tells a suspiciously-eager reporter that his particular swinger group involves lawyers, businessmen and administrators, that they are - on the whole - highly educated, and that they "choose polygamy" in order to "fill a void".

The aghast hack tells us that the groups gather for dinner or at KTV joints, and then deep into the night, choose their partners through the time-honoured tradition of putting their keys on the table in front of them and then swapping them at random.

He proceeds to interview "Mary", a mother-of-two and enthusiastic swinger of 10 years standing, and "Shelly", whose previous disappointments in love prompted her to jack in the monogamy lark.

No article of this type would be complete without sanctimonious reference to an "expert" who claims that the activities violate national laws.