After he had spent years working at smartphone company Huawei, Zheng Jiajia, a 31-year-old Chinese man decided to quit his job and focus on artificial intelligence startup. Having become a successful artificial intelligence engineer, last year he constructed a robot and named it Yingying, and, according to Qianjiang Evening News, this year, believe it or not, he has decided to give up trying to find his soulmate and simply “marry” the robot.
Zheng has explained that he made this decision partly because he could no longer withstand the pressure from his family who kept insisting he should get married, so he found a quick solution. He “dated” Yingying for two months and then he decided it was time to take their relationship to the next level. He invited his mother and friends to the ceremony and “married” Yingying in the eastern city of Hangzhou.
This can’t be called a real marriage since it is not officially recognized by the authorities, but the ceremony was in accordance with local tradition. The “bride” had her head covered with a red cloth, just like any other, so, considering that, we can say that was a typical Chinese wedding.
World Economic Forum has recently published that in China there are 113.5 men for every 100 women, which means it is quite difficult for men to find a wife. That’s how some people explain Zheng’s decision to opt for a robot.
For the time being, Yingying can’t even walk, she can only speak a couple of rather simple words and read certain Chinese characters. However, Zheng already has a plan on how to upgrade his “wife” so that he doesn’t have to carry her. In addition to this, if he manages to realize his plans, she will also be capable of doing household chores.
People’s reaction to this unusual news was mixed. For instance, one WeChat user who obviously supports Zheng’s choice wrote: “You won’t have her mother looking down on you, you don’t have the pressure to buy a home and you get to save money and energy.” However, there were also the ones who were more skeptical about it, like another user who asked the following question: “He’ll slowly get old, his face will become wrinkled and his hair will grow white – but will he upgrade her to grow old, or just to be prettier?”
Even though it’s quite common to talk about robots replacing humans in China, a marriage like this is strange even there. What do you think about it?
