The games people play

Filling the void

Wu believes that the PUAs' move into related fields is rooted in Chinese culture and the education system. Although he was born in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, his family moved to New York when he was in the sixth grade, giving him first-hand experience of the cultural differences between China and the United States.

"In the US, children are encouraged to socialize. There are clubs, like brotherhoods, starting from high school. In China, children are told they will be able to solve all their problems in the future by being academically successful. They are trained to be quiet; the less sociable, the better," he said, adding that the national family planning policy, which limited couples to one child, exacerbated the situation.

"That's why socializing is less of a problem for men in the US," he said.

Wu said many of his clients earned hundreds of thousands of yuan a year, yet they barely reached the level of high school students when they met young women.

"Most men are too proud to admit they have difficulty attracting women. It's close to admitting you are impotent," he said.

He recalled one client, a self-employed man from Guangdong province who earned more than 100,000 yuan a month, whose hands shook uncontrollably whenever he spoke to a woman. "We had to coach him all the way, from his dress sense to the way he behaved and spoke. We accompanied him on his blind dates, and gave him advice afterward."

"On the day he got married, he put his head on my shoulder and cried. I felt like I'd never done a more meaningful thing in my life," he said.

For Wu, another reason PUAs have become so popular in China is that the standard of psychological counseling lags far behind that in the United States. "In the US, people consult relationship counselors whenever they have difficulties, and the industry has a lot to offer. In China, people won't go to see counselors unless they are deemed to have psychological problems," he said.

He believes a quintessential element of pickup artistry is learning to know women better and becoming a better person. "Women won't fall in love with you just because you're good with words. You need to make yourself likeable, to live a better life," he said.

"The thing to do is become their Mr. Right rather than desperately trying to convince them to love you," he said.