Agencies then won greater legal status after a 2002 court ruling, although in reality hawkshaws continued to ply their trade as "consultants."
"It's legal to run an investigation company, as Chinese law doesn't explicitly forbid it," Zhang said.
Like some of his more disreputable counterparts in the West, Zhang spends a significant amount of time videotaping cheating spouses, which according to Chinese law is a legal means of proving infidelity.
To help women take advantage of a recent law that allows women filing for divorce to win greater financial compensation if husbands are found cheating, the Chengdu Debang Investigation company, employing 16 female investigators, opened last week in southwestern Sichuan province.
"More and more women are suffering from unfair treatment from their husbands ... that's why the center was opened," investigator Liu Li said by telephone from Chengdu.
"It's hard to imagine that there are so many husbands who have extramarital wives," she said.
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