The occupational hazards of a virtual boyfriend

Lin has now reached a level that classes him as a gem, and if you want to hire him it will cost you 80 yuan an hour. Those earnings are split between the store and the employee, he says. A poor customer review means not only that he will not get his cut, but that he will be penalized a small amount.

Eighty percent of his customers are women. But there is no clear standard for reviews, and Lin complains: "On one occasion I had this really good conversation with a customer, and she seemed to be very satisfied. But she turned around and gave me a bad review, and I was gob-smacked."

The virtual boyfriend business is perfect as a part-time job, he says.

"If you want to you can pick up as many orders as you want. The business has been hot for many years. I can make a dozen orders a day if I'm trying hard. But orders are most frequent during the late-night hours, the down side being that you have to sacrifice sleeping hours, but I think it's worth it if you can pull in 500 yuan a day.

"For me the job is also particularly intriguing because I have met all kinds of customers. Some complain about having a bad day; others are trying to come to terms with a broken relationship."

Some even ask him to sing lullabies to them until they are soundly asleep. The notion that what he is involved in is nothing but a quid pro quo transaction does not bother him, he says.

"When I start chatting to some of these women they're very downcast, but once we're finished they're in a much better mood. Making someone who is sad happy gives me a sense of fulfillment."

China News quoted Li Shuanglong, associate professor in the Department of Sociology Guangzhou University, as saying:"Many people are unable to obtain an ideal relationship because of pressure of work or simply because they are poor at social interaction.

"I hope that young people, especially college students, realize that pursuing love is natural and don't put too much store by this virtual world. In essence, consumers and virtual lovers are short-term business deals, not emotional relationships. Young people need to be shown how to release pressure in a rational way."

Virtual partnerships based on some kind of emotional attachment are not new.

In 2007 Hatsune Miku, the world's first virtual singing idol, was created, a 16-year-old girl-like figure with long, turquoise twin tails. On Aug 31, 2009, she held her first concert, vocals being generated by computer. Today she has hundreds of millions of fans worldwide.

The Virtual Idol Observation Report 2019 by iQiyi, an online entertainment provider, says China's 2D idol fan base rose from 310 million in 2017 to 390 million in 2019.

In 2017, 27 percent of respondents aged 18 to 34 in a survey of 12,000 people said they believed that one day it would be normal for humans to establish a relationship with a robot.

Also in 2017 a casual love mobile game, Lian Yu Zhizuoren, (Mr Love: Queen's Choice), went on the market, and in less than a month millions of young Chinese women and girls were besotted by four imaginary young men, Xu Mo, Li Zeyan, Bai Qi, and Zhou Qiluo, and the app was eventually installed on more than 7 million mobile devices.