An advertisement for a kissing device designed for long-distance lovers on China's online shopping site Taobao.
Credit: taobao
(CNN) --
Want to blow your far-away lover a kiss?
A Chinese contraption with warm, moving silicon "lips" seems to have the answer.
The device, advertised as a way to allow long-distance couples to share "real" physical intimacy, has caused a stir among Chinese social media users, who have reacted with intrigue and shock.
Equipped with pressure sensors, the device is said to be able to imitate a real kiss by replicating the pressure, movement and temperature of the user's lips.
Along with the kissing motion, it can also transmit the sound the user makes.
However, while many social media users saw a fun side to the device, others criticized it as "vulgar" and "creepy."
Some expressed concern that minors could buy and use it.
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“I don't understand (the device), but I am completely shocked,” said one of the most prominent comments on Weibo.
On the Twitter-like platform, various hashtags about the device racked up hundreds of millions of views over the past week.
The kissing device is advertised as a way to share "physical" intimacy between long-distance couples.
Credit: taobao
To send a kiss, users need to download a mobile phone app and plug the device into their phone's charging port.
After linking up with their partners on the app, couples can start a video call and broadcast replicas of their kisses to each other.
According to China's state-run Global Times, the invention has been patented by the Changzhou Vocational Institute of Mechatronics Technology.
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“At my university, I had a long-distance relationship with my girlfriend, so we only had contact by phone.
That is where the inspiration for this device originated,” said Jiang Zhongli, the main inventor of the design, as quoted by the Global Times.
He said Jiang had applied for a patent in 2019, but the patent expired in January 2023 and Jiang now hopes someone else could expand and refine the design.
A similar invention, the "Kissinger," was launched by the Imagineering Institute in Malaysia in 2016. But it came in the form of a touch-sensitive silicone pad, rather than realistic-looking lips.
While advertised for long-distance relationships, the Chinese device also allows users to anonymously match up with strangers in the app's "kissing square" feature.
If two strangers successfully match and like each other, they can ask to exchange kisses.
Users can also "upload" their kisses to the app for others to download and experience.
On China's largest online shopping site Taobao, dozens of users have shared their reviews of the device, which is priced at 288 yuan ($41).
“My partner didn't think (distance) kissing was achievable at first, so her jaw dropped when she used it… This is the best surprise I've ever given her during our long-distance relationship,” one user commented.
"Thank you, technology."