Shocking: Chinese engineer "marries" robot girlfriend after two years of dating

To avoid suffering from another heart break after his high school girl left him a
Chinese artificial intelligence engineer Zheng Jiajia has given up on the search for love and “married” a robot he built himself.

Zheng who is  31, decided to commit after failing to find a human spouse, his friend said

Zheng had also become tired of the constant pressure from family members to get married, so he turned to a robot he built late last year and named Yingying.

After two months of “dating”, he donned a black suit to “marry” her at a ceremony attended by his mother and friends at the weekend in the eastern city of Hangzhou.

While not officially recognised by the authorities, the union had all the trappings of a typical Chinese wedding, with Yingying’s head covered with a red cloth in accordance with local tradition.

 Zheng Jiajia carried his robot wife – her head covered in red cloth in accordance with local tradition.

For now Yingying can only read some Chinese characters and images and speak a few simple words, but Zheng plans to upgrade his “bride” to be able to walk and do household chores. Until then he has to carry the 30kg robot to move her.

Reaction in China to the union has been mixed, with some social media users mocking Zheng and others wondering if it is all a publicity stunt.

“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,” one user wrote on WeChat, a popular social network.

“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?” another user asked.
It's an odd world indeed.