THE MESSAGE READS like a bumper sticker: 'DNA solves your problem.' And it's attracting plenty of interest. The company offering the service claims to have doubled its business in the past six months. Perhaps that's because in July the message appeared on two huge, strategically placed billboards in Shenzhen - one on the Huanggang border and the other outside Xiasha, a village notorious for housing the mistresses of Hong Kong men.
The Taitai (wife) Judicial Test Centre, one of three private-sector clinics offering DNA tests in Shenzhen, is cashing in on demand created by Hong Kong men who have suspicions about their lovers.
Less than three years ago, mistresses in Shenzhen were employing private detectives to find married Hong Kong lovers who'd abandoned them during the economic downturn. Some mistresses were forced to find another provider or work in bars. With money now flowing on both sides of the border, the men are hiring investigators to check on their mistresses and dragging them to Taitai for DNA tests on their children.
The surge in paternity challenges suggests that a growing number of er nai, or second wives, are betraying the betrayers. Or is it just that the women are less attentive after having been left out in the cold during the lean years?
About 75 per cent of the tests in the special economic zone last year confirmed paternity, according to Zhang Baohua, vice-manager at the Taitai centre.
And about one in every four couples who visit the clinic are Hong Kong men and their mistresses, says Zhang. That figure is based on the number of people who admit to living in Hong Kong. The real figure may be higher, he says.
