BEIJING - The Chinese Single People's Association released a list - 11 Careers in China that Prospective Partners Shun the Most - on the eve of Singles' Day.

Zhang Yiyi, who called himself the president of the association, said that poets, highly-admired in the past, topped the list of those having careers that were being seen as the most undesirable. On the list, secretaries are ranked at number two, for the reason that they "do not have a good reputation". Lawyers finished at number three, according to Zhang.

"We distributed 111,111 well-designed questionnaires in 111 cities across the country, and got the list after a careful analysis," said Zhang.

"I'm not surprised to be ranked at number three," said Hu Hong, a lawyer who works at the Beijing branch of an United States-based law firm. "If you release a list of people with careers that were most likely to get divorced in China, lawyers will, no doubt, rank among the top five."

However, he admitted that most of his colleagues were in a similar quandary.

"Many of us haven't found a girlfriend. Except some impoverished ones who don't have a good job, most of us are just too picky about girlfriends."

"I founded the association to solve a serious social problem of the country, which is that there are too many leftover men and women right now," Zhang said.

According to the All-China Women's Federation, single women above the age of 27 and single men older than 30 are classified as the "leftover" people, as they are called in Chinese.

"If you have the confidence that you can find a boyfriend or girlfriend in the future, you are qualified to join the association, and will be awarded a certificate," said Zhang.

"Apart from releasing 11 Careers in China that Prospective Partners Shun the Most, we will compile lists of China's 11 Most Famous Single People, and China's 11 Universities Having the Most Single People every year," added Zhang. "We'll arrange a series of matchmaking parties nationwide to serve single people."

Each member of the association is supposed to share information about their single friends with fellow members. No concealment is allowed, he said.