By Bo Gu, NBC News

BEIJING – An Jiqiang says he accidentally came across a web sitecalled “Paoxue.com," which means “art of seduction” in Chinese when hewas searching online for the book, “The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists," written by the American writer Neil Strauss.

An,a 30-year-old businessman, had been having a difficult time with hisgirlfriend and thought he needed guidance from professionals on how tosocialize. Through Paoxue.com he found Chris Wu, one of the first pickup artists inChina who offers both online consultation and real-life trainingclasses. Without hesitation, An registered for a course last May. Forone week’s instruction, he paid $760 and thinks it was well worth themoney.

The guys I met at the party definitely seemed to have learned a thingor two about being charming. They were all cheerful, smiling, chattyand polite. “The most important thing I learned is that I look at thegirls’ eyes when I talk to them," said one young IT engineer, lookingstraight at my eyes. “And to show the best of yourself.”

“EverywhereI go around the world, it’s the same thing: there are a lot of sweet,nice men who maybe didn’t learn from their fathers how to connect withwomen, how to meet women, how to make a spark… If I can help in any way,I want to,” Elise told me the next day during one of the classes. 

Comparedto single men in the West, Chinese men seem to be less confidentmeeting new girls in social venues. Pressured by heavy schoolwork andstrict parenting, they have very little dating experience in theirteens, and yet once they reach their early 20s they are already worryingabout marriage and having children.

Very few people escape thepressure of the traditional family-oriented mindset of Chinese culture.As one old Chinese proverb goes, there are three ways to be an unworthychild, the worst being not producing offspring. New phrases like“leftover girls” and “leftover boys” are entering the modern lexicon,referring to women and men in their late 20s or early 30s who are stillsingle.

At the same time, young Chinese people’s social lives arerelatively limited. The bar and club culture is still non-existent inthe vast rural areas, and even in cities people usually socialize withfriends they already know around dinner tables, limiting theiropportunities to meet new potential mates. A large number of singlesrely on dating services like www.jiayuan.com, one of China’s biggest matchmaking companies which claims to have more than 30 million members.

Chinais also the most gender-imbalanced country because of the one-childpolicy and the cultural preference for boys whom people believe willcontinue the family bloodline. According to the nation's populationwatchdog, there will be 30 million more men than women by 2020.

If so, by then, China’s pickup artists may want to consider a basic class in "how to find a girl" before getting to the seduction training.

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