A CHARACTER in “The Big Bang Theory,” Rajeesh Koothrappali, was so shy he was unable to speak in front of women unless he was intoxicated and many men in real life encounter the same problem every day.
A Shenzhen man who had such a problem is trying to help others by offering a training program to turn an average frustrated chump into a pickup artist (PUA).
The training program, initiated in January by Han Jiangxue, a pseudonym, charges each learner 1,388 yuan (US$203) for a two-day training program, including on-the-spot practice in bookstores, shopping malls and night clubs.
Before training himself, Han was often unable to speak or act normally when he approached a female.
To achieve his goal of finding himself a wife before the age of 28, he started to learn how to approach and attract women by reading PUA Web sites in English. He then shared his step-by-step experience in his online blog.
Han’s name soon became a hot search item as an increasing number of people began to read his blog. Spotting a demand among young men in Shenzhen, Han created a club and organized weekly gatherings to allow the online friends to communicate face-to-face.
More than 300 people — all male — have attended his training program and many had flown to Shenzhen from other Chinese cities, he said. It was interesting to note that more than 90 percent of the trainees were college students.
The training program started turning a profit two months ago after he increased the price to 1,388 yuan. He plans to offer the training programs in Shanghai and Nanjing soon.
The two-day program, which is usually conducted over a weekend, includes an indoor class Saturday morning in a Luohu hotel and on-the-spot training at Book City in Luohu, The MixC and night clubs for the rest of the weekend.
The trainees are taught how to start a conversion with a woman and how to continue the conversation, obtain phone numbers — even how to give a woman a massage. Han said many young women were also interested in taking the classes, but were too shy to join.
A trainee from Lanzhou City, Xin Ba, said he joined the course to find a more competent woman, while another, Xiao Xiong, said finding a wife was his original intention, but he found the training program had honed his marketing skills.
Yu Xiang, a lawyer with Wisdom Law Firm, said there was no law or regulation against training programs such as this, but he worried whether some techniques taught in the program would be lawful. (Liu Minxia)