They have been called the last holdouts among zhinan'ai, or male chauvinists, wedded to outdated and even bigoted values and aesthetics. They look with suspicious on anything that casts doubt on what for them are true masculine values and the rightful, inferior, place of women in the world.

Liang Liang, 28, a programmer in Beijing, says he was so used to donning bulky pants and sandals in summer, and plaid shirt and blue jeans in cooler weather that two years ago he resolved to change his ways because he could not bear his girlfriend poking fun at him, even if was all just in jest.

"Programmers are not indifferent to grooming," Liang says."The intense work schedule and an abysmal imbalance in the number of male and female employees in technology companies limits our social circles. Guys who are single tend to be more footloose regarding personal appearance. But when a female colleague talks of how well dressed we are we're quite happy. The problem is that knowing how to dress up－rather than just to dress－requires years of experience, and many people are afraid of stepping out of their comfort zone."

It is one of the most difficult problems that besets his male colleagues when they go on a date, he says. Many of his colleagues freely admit that often their first date with someone turns out to be the last, which is also the time the text messages stop arriving, because they turned up for the date in garb that screamed country bumpkin rather than urban sophisticate.

"Programmers used to make a lot of money, so people said their appearance was irrelevant," Liang says. "These days women make a lot of money too, and in first-tier cities such as Beijing and Shanghai the exorbitant cost of housing has produced subtle changes in the rules for relationships and marriage.

"Both the man and woman need to have the wherewithal to buy something or get a loan, so gender equality has resulted in young women having a greater say. And there is no doubt that in choosing a lifelong partner women have much tougher criteria."