The games people play

Pickup artist Wu Jiamin (right), who teaches under the name of Tango, talks with clients about his methods of wooing women in Beijing. [Photo by Zhang Tao/China Daily]

Dating dilemma

With the growth of China's middle class, there is no shortage of well-paid singles such as Ze, who earns more than 500,000 yuan a year, with relationship problems. In 2013, the gender ratio at birth stood at 117.6 males for every 100 females, even after years of decline, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. Last year, a report in People's Daily predicted that by 2020 men of marriageable age would outstrip their female counterparts by 24 million.

For the 100 pickup artists and dating coaches across China, the gender disparity represents a golden business opportunity.

Influenced by similar movements in the US, China's "seduction community" started to take shape in 2008 when a number of PUAs started advertising courses to teach others their "skills". Recently, though, the market potential presented by the huge number of male singletons yearning for stable, long-term relationships has seen many PUAs transition from offering pickup lessons to relationship counseling and dating tips.

"The reason is simple: PUAs are just the icing on the cake, and society has a need for them. But you can never count on people paying big money for that," said Wu Jiamin, CEO of the dating coach website puahome and one of China's first PUAs, who teaches under the name of Tango.

Wu, who started puahome and an online forum, Bad Boy Academy, in 2013, said he's trying to reduce the PUA element in his business model and retune it to the needs of the majority.

"We want to transform its role into that of an emergency room or a clinic. We want to help men with relationship difficulties. That's radically different from pickup artistry, which is essentially just for amusement," he said.

Pan Sheng, CEO of paoxue, China's first online community for pickup artists, which has more than 700,000 registered users, has also noticed the change in attitude. "There are fewer courses offering guidance on picking up girls in bars, and more that provide coaching about relationships and self-improvement," he said.

He admitted that he had doubts even when he worked as a teacher of pickup artistry. "As a PUA, the biggest problem is that you eventually begin to doubt the rationality of what you're doing. Although we provided numerous lessons about nightclub etiquette and picking up girls, they didn't change the lives of the trainees for the better," he said.

"At one time, I didn't dare tell my parents I was a pickup artist and was also teaching people how to do it. But last year, I told them and they had no problem accepting it," he added.