PETALING JAYA: With no girlfriend in the picture despite looking hard for one, a Chinese engineer decided to marry a robot he created with his bare hands.

According to the South China Morning Post, that quoted a report from the Qianjiang Evening News, Zheng Jiajia, 31, an artificial intelligence expert, took the bold step to marry the robot Yingying last Friday in the company of his mother and friends.

Yingying has special meaning to Zheng, who is from Hangzhou, Zhejiang province in China, as he designed and created her himself at the end of last year.

While “she” can identify Chinese characters and speak a few words at present, Zheng has big plans for his tall and slender “wife”, as he intends to upgrade the robot’s systems so it is capable of much more.

With the upgrades, it is hoped Yingying can walk on her own, as opposed to being carried as Zheng had to do on his wedding day, and even do some household chores.

For the big day, the bespectacled, bald-headed Zheng wore a black suit, and Yingying matched his attire in black as well with a bright red scarf draped over “her” head, in accordance with the traditional Chinese wedding ritual.

According to the news report, Zheng once worked for Chinese multinational telecoms company Huawei, before leaving in 2014 to join Hangzhou’s Dream Town, an internet venture base, last year.