'Much more attractive': Tired of men, these young girls rent video game characters for their dates

Cette lycéenne a trouvé ce moyen plutôt inhabituel pour se faire de l’argent de poche. Une tendance en plein essor à Shanghai, la capitale économique chinoise. Hector RETAMAL/AFP

An 18-year-old Shanghai girl, Xu Yunting, dresses up as a male video game character and rents herself out to female fans for “cosplay” dates that set the hearts of young Chinese girls aflutter.

This high school girl has found this rather unusual way to make some pocket money. A booming trend in Shanghai, the Chinese economic capital.

The world of video games preferred to real life

Makeup, contact lenses to enlarge his eyes, and a bright orange boyish wig, Xu Yunting adjusts his artifices to transform himself into “Jesse”, a tall and sensitive musician, a key character in the game “Light and night”.

Launched in 2021 by internet giant Tencent, this interactive role-playing game lets you create an avatar to form virtual romantic relationships with characters.

Since its release in China, it has been a huge success with a female audience fascinated by the realism of the characters, whose voices are played by professional actors, and their psychology.

Feng Xinyu, a 19-year-old Chinese woman, is one of those fans who prefers the world of the game to her daily life in real life.

"I'm not interested in men in 3D"

"I don't have a boyfriend because I'm not interested in 3D men", says this employee of the internet sector, using an expression that refers to individuals in flesh and blood.

“For me, animated characters are much more attractive”, like Jesse, she declares to AFP.

Regulars of the game “Light and night” like Feng Xinyu have formed very strong emotional bonds with the characters.

It is therefore not surprising for the young woman to want to push the immersion to the next level, by hiring the services of a Jesse who is more real than life – embodied by Shanghainese Xu Yunting.

“She is exactly like the character in the game”, enthuses Feng Xinyu, who paid around 65 euros for this date, the third with Xu Yunting because “we really get along well”.

The “couple” meets up at a subway station for a packed schedule: tea for two, a cake decorating workshop, a romantic walk hand in hand, and a romantic fondue dinner for two.

According to experts who are interested in the phenomenon of “cosplay” dating, their success is based on the ability to present an ideal relationship on paper. It is artificial but much easier to construct than in reality.

“Quality Men”

The character “conveys emotions”, the most important thing in the eyes of customers, notes Tian Qian, who teaches psychology at Fudan University. It is a “emotional support” : “There is no conflict in this relationship. I just have to pay and I can confide my feelings”, summarizes the 40-year-old professor, who receives AFP in her office.

These “cosplay” meetings allow women "to have their voices fully respected by the opposite sex", says Zhou Zixing, another academic.

During the cake decorating workshop, Feng Xinyu watches fondly as her boyfriend for the day sprinkles icing sugar on a sponge cake. Like a gentleman, Jesse then helps her delicately remove her apron.

"These video game characters are all quality men", says Xu Yunting, who plays Jesse. Thanks to these meetings, “clients raise their standards for real-life men and will be less tempted to settle for mediocre men”, believes the young cosplayer.

Her mother Fang Xiuqing does not hide having been surprised at first by her daughter's activity. Before taking a step back and now seeing things philosophically: “It's not a job but rather a hobby”, she emphasizes. “(My daughter) gets pleasure from it and she brings joy to others”.