"It needs great courage for an introverted boy to say, 'I love you', face to face, then why not let me help you announce your undying devotion," Sun said.

Facilitating love

Don't look so surprised - helping the lovelorn say "I love you" is just Sun's daily job.

He is one of the few professional short message writers in Shanghai and every week he has to rack his brain to create at least 30 love messages on the Internet.

Sun admitted that he is not a love expert. In fact he felt embarrassed when, in 2000, his department leader informed him that the company planned to initiate an online business named, "Sending love through the Internet" and he has been chosen - a 20-year-old boy just graduated from college - to be responsible for creating all the content.

"The business was brand new in Shanghai at that time," said Sun. "There was nobody to turn to for help."

The first task he confronted was to invent a 500 love messages database and keep updating some of them every day.

Speaking of love is not a difficult thing for Sun, who started his own romantic life in college. But it can still be demanding to say it in 500 distinctive versions.

Sun searched through the Internet, best-selling books and DVDs for love stories and adapted the plots into love messages.

Experience helps

But Sun thinks the school experience helped him a lot.

"At that time my seat was circled by a group of girls'," Sun said. "The three-year friendship trained me into a woman's mind reader. I know what women most like to hear."

Later on, with the company's business expanding, Sun has gradually had the chance to create more Internet jokes, which, as he said, "is to his advantage."

Actors' lines from comedies are his pet phrases. Exaggerated, humorous laughs by Hong Kong Comedy King Steven Chow from the movie, "The New Monkey King", can be heard as Sun Lin's mobile phone rings.

Sun is most satisfied with a small trick he once played on a friend. Sun called one of his friends and left a short message on his mobile phone: "I am looking for you. It's urgent. Something about your marriage has happened. Please call me at ..." His friend, remembering that Sun had promised to introduce him to a beautiful girl, called back and found out the telephone number belonged to a match-making company.

Something to enliven

"Young people today are working under pressure and they need something to help relax their tightly stretched nerves," said Sun. "I hope I can be the one who can bring laughter and happiness to them."

Sun's favourite messages are all half-emotion and half-joke ones. The viewer, after reading the first part of the message, would think it a love message and would never realize its concealed humour until finishing the last line.

Sun's short messages are so popular that some of them, after being spread among many unknown users, were sent back into his own mobile phone by one of his friends, who didn't know the message had actually come from Sun.

"That is the happiest time," said Sun. "I like to see how they react when they find out the message was created by me."

Sun often shares interesting short messages downloaded from the Internet or created by himself with his girlfriend. Short messaging has become not only the content of his job but the best emotional stimulus between him and his girlfriend.

Now the appearance of colour-screen mobile phones has raised new tasks for Sun. Users are no longer satisfied with letters. They need to let their mobile phone rings and flash to announce their uniqueness. Sun has started shifting his creation into mobile phone pictures and ring tones.

Wealth of resources

Sometimes the netizens would post messages on the Internet, telling him which song they most wanted to hear. Sun would go to some professional music website such as www.sogua.com and listen to the song from the Internet again and again. Then he needs to memorize the tones and encode them into the format acceptable to the mobile phone.

Now Sun is familiar with most pop songs broadcast on radio or TV, although sometimes he cannot be quite sure about the title. But if somebody hums the first few phrases, he can immediately catch the basic tones.

"Not all popular songs are suitable for mobile phones. For example, hip-pop now is popular among young people but few would choose it for their phone because of its strong beat," said Sun. "The most ideal tune should be one with an obvious rise and fall, modulate in tones."

Sun has to spend all his working time in front of the computer, searching for the coolest stuff on the Internet. The overtime use of his eyes has destroyed Sun's eyesight. His eyes remain red all day, looking like a rabbit's. Sun said his mother has forbidden him to sit in front of a computer at home.

"I know it is damaging my eyes and health," said Sun. "But I have no way to escape it because it is my job."

"As an occupation targeting young people, the first thing you have to know is to find out what they are pursuing. The Internet is the fastest, easiest way to achieve that."

Sun's friends envy him a lot, saying he can surf the Internet and listen to music all day long without worrying about being fired.

Sun explained: "No matter how much you enjoy the music, once it has become your job, a way to make a living, you will feel the pressure and lose any pleasure generated by the hobby."

Sun's job trained him to always keep abreast of fashion. Whenever you ask, he can fluently tell you what is popular among young people, what is the most fashioned song, singer, movie, video game and even the latest mobile phone models.

"I have three of the newest mobile phones from the manufactures, but I am still using my old one," Sun said. "My job forces me to be a fashion guide but I don't necessarily want to be a fashion follower. The best of anything is the one most suitable for yourself."

(Shanghai Star January 27, 2003)