It seems that in the real-life version of the bodyguards you often see in movies watching executives or celebrities like hawks there is much more than meets the eye.

These days bodyguards show up for such a wide range of social events that their employers expect them to be not only top physical specimens who can pack a punch, but to be brimming with brain power as well. Many are required to know foreign languages, law and public relations.

There is also a demand for a lighter touch, in the shape of women, deemed to be more charming, more attentive and less aggressive.

Nevertheless, most of the trainees at a bodyguard school in Beijing are demobilized soldiers and retired athletes, notwithstanding others from more sedentary, cerebral backgrounds. Some merely want to learn self-defense skills.

The curriculum, for men and women alike, includes swimming in bitterly cold water, special car driving techniques and training in "mind reading".

Mind reading skills are not needed to know that many Chinese regard bodyguards as little better than paid thugs, but that, too, is apparently changing and today's celebrity culture means those in the profession even have a certain social cachet.

(China Daily European Weekly 06/13/2014 page24)