By Helen Luk
Shenzhen, China - Tears welled up in Mr. Zhang's eyes as he collapsed on a sofa, holding the results of a DNA test that said his five-year-old son was fathered by another man.
Zhang, a pudgy man with a crew cut, was one of the latest customers of a growing business in China, where more men are paying to prove their children's identities. He declined to give his full name.
DNA testing is becoming popular because more can afford it and extramarital affairs are rising in China's rapidly developing society, said Wang Shayan, the director at the DNA clinic at Shenzhen People's Hospital, where Zhang got his results.
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"My heart aches," Zhang moaned as he sat, seemingly dazed, at the DNA-testing clinic in Shenzhen, a Chinese boomtown just across the border from Hong Kong.
"I can't hold this report in my hand. It's a great shame to our family. I can't face it."
There are three authorised DNA testing clinics in this city of 12 million people. One has a giant billboard ad that shows a woman and child and reads: "DNA parentage testing centre confirms your identity."
The aggressive marketing has apparently worked, with business taking off since the second half of 2004, said Zhang Baohua, manager of the Guangdong Taitai DNA clinic - the first private centre set up in China after the government let commercial companies enter the business in 2002.
Zhang said about 250 families have taken the tests so far this year, compared to 100 for the same period in 2004.
"More people have become aware of the test," he said. "Some have had their doubts for years, and had no means of resolving them. Now, they have found a solution."
The walls at Wang's clinic - once a daycare centre - are still painted with piglets and ducks. She said the clinic has conducted paternity tests for 158 couples in the first five months this year, up 28 percent from the same period last year.
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