The survey, which questioned 14,290 career women about their work and life choices, also showed that 29 percent had not yet had any children, and 20 percent did not want children at all.

When asked why they didn’t want children, 56 percent cited the high costs involved. More than 70 percent of women reportedly would not leave their jobs to become mothers.

The survey seems to be at odds with the expectations of the Chinese government. Three decades of the one-child policy came to an end earlier this year, and government authorities are expecting something of a baby boom, with up to an estimated three million extra births each year. This increase would boost the overall birth rate by over 20 million.

Last month, the Beijing Municipal Commission of Health and Family Planning announced it would set aside more maternity beds in advance of the predicted surge.

Chinese cities are actively trying to encourage couples to have more babies. Shanghai is one of many Chinese cities that is extending parental leave for both fathers and mothers.

The post One Child Policy Gone, but Chinese Women Aren’t Interested in Having a Second Kid appeared first on The Nanfang.

The Beijing Municipal Bureau of Statistics has found that the number of single women in Beijing is rising, accounting for 45 percent of all singles between the ages of 30 and 44, an increase of 40 percent from the last time the survey was held five years ago.

And as befitting the “leftover woman” model, these single women are usually city residents with good educations. Ninety-three percent of these women live in urban areas, and 81 percent hold college degrees or higher. By contrast, the survey found that single men in China usually live in rural areas. More than half of these single men only have a junior high school education at best.

If you’re thinking a quirky rom-com scenario is the ideal circumstance to match-up these unlikely pairs, you’d be wrong. Xinhua reports that Chinese men tend to marry younger, less educated women than themselves.

According to some experts, the rise of leftover women may be simply due to the fact that women are better enjoying their rights and freedoms. Writer Luo Aiping, 38,  has said the high numbers of leftover women in China is a sign of progress. Luo maintains that real achievement for women is attaining equal respect and freedom.

The Beijing survey was taken of one percent of the population as a way to supplement the national census.

Related:

• Hong Kong’s Gender Imbalance Leaving a Generation of Unmarried Women
• Guangdong has the most singles in China, but “leftover men” a problem
• Evolution of Dating in China: Trading Pressure for Preference

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The State Council just released the Gender Equality and Female Development Report; among other things, it reported that women in China are living longer, and women’s literacy rates are rising.

In 2010, a woman’s life expectancy reached 77.4 years, an increase of 4.1 years from 2000, and still five years longer than Chinese men. The illiteracy rate for women over the age of 15 dropped to 6.7 percent in 2013, which was 17.4 percent less than 1995.

Chinese women’s groups couldn’t be happier with the news. “All of these stats confirm a new coming stage in the fight towards equal-share, gender equality, and female rights , ensuring women’s equal development and participation under lawful protection,” said Song Xiuyuan, vice-president and first secretariat of the All-China Women’s Federation.

Unfortunately, the report doesn’t always reflect Song’s vision of gender equality: most notably, female representatives in the 10th National People’s Congress constituted just 23.4 percent, only a 2.4 percent increase in the last 20 years. At this rate, it will take Chinese women over 200 years to achieve equal representation at the NPC.

Then again, this could be the “steady increase” that the People’s Daily Online was talking about.

The post Good News: Chinese Women Living Longer, More Can Read appeared first on The Nanfang.

The term “leftover women”, which describes single women over the age of 30 or so, is considered a pejorative because it singles women out for their failure to find a husband. But Luo Aiping, a 38-year old writer of a book called Investigation into China’s Leftover Women, says women should be wearing the title with pride because it shows China is advancing.

Luo maintains that a woman’s happiness has nothing to do with a husband or children. For women, real achievement is attaining equal respect and freedom. Luo says marriage restricts the freedom of women and hinders them from developing their careers:

When I look around at other women my age, they’ve mostly retreated from their careers and gone back to their homes. Women with ambition are a small minority.

Luo blames traditional Chinese culture for a lack of options:

A lot of women think having a child is a personal decision, but I think it’s worth asking if that really is the case. That’s because from birth, we are told that as girls we should get married and have babies. There’s no way you’re allowed to have the freedom to choose for yourself… This society requires women to both be pining for love or a marriage, but I don’t yearn for either one.

China recent economic advances in turn provide female empowerment. As Luo says, the phenomenon of “leftover women” shows that China is progressing:

A woman’s right to an education has been guaranteed. By becoming financially independent and able to take care of oneself, marriage changes from a necessity everyone needs in their lives to a choice you can make for yourself.

Luo is also critical of Chinese women who make marriage more important than romance and love. Even still, Luo thinks that marriage does not confer many benefits to women, who are instead saddled with responsibilities. And even within the bonds of marriage, the “feeling of security” that so many Chinese women pine for does not exist:

Before marriage, property belongs to each individual. However, our society has a predilection to make men provide a house for marriage. In the case that one day the couple may have a divorce, you may find yourself left with nothing.

Luo also opens up about not being married. She said she hasn’t been in a relationship in ten years and is enjoying single life. For her, love is just a fleeting, momentary emotion that is not worth yearning for. As for sex:

Marriage does not guarantee you will have a satisfactory sex life. Also, the methods to having a one-night stand are now becoming increasingly available and convenient.

Here’s the video of the interview:

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You can be a successful, independent Chinese woman with your own career, but you can’t control what you do with the eggs in your own body – at least, not without a man in your life. That’s because if a woman wants to freeze her own eggs to give birth in the future, she needs to meet an important requirement: having a husband.

China’s Ministry of Health has said that any Chinese couples interested in using assisted reproductive technology must present their marriage certificate, identity cards and birth permits and prove that at least one partner is suffering from fertility difficulties if they want to use the technology.

The ban comes after a controversy erupted earlier this summer when actor and director Xu Jinglei (seen below) was reported to have had her eggs frozen in the USA. The outcry over the procedure had to do with Xu’s age, 41, and the fact that she remains unmarried.

Netizens felt Xu was far too old to be considering having a baby of her own through any means, and should refrain from “playing God”. Meanwhile, Sina News reports that egg-freezing is a growing trend among women in Chinese hospitals who are following in the footsteps of celebrities like Xu.

For her part, Xu only had personal misgivings, saying, “The only thing I regret is that I am a little bit late in doing so.”  Xu explained her decision to store her eggs was the only way to make up for her past mistakes if she failed to get married and have a baby.

The issue of leftover women is a taboo subject in China, with society generally accepting that women should get married before the age of 27. This fixed age is important because pregnancies are not encouraged to take place after 30 years of age. Experts warn that postponing pregnancy can lead to a host of problems and urge women to reconsider using techniques such as egg freezing.

Regulations set by the Ministry of Health now state that freezing eggs solely for the purpose of preserving or extending fertility, surrogacy and trading in ova are all illegal acts. The ban was met with harsh criticism online. Here’s how popular blogger and Nescafe spokesperson Han Han lashed out at the Ministry of Health:

So it’s not possible to want to have a child without first getting married to a man? You can’t use your own eggs? Women don’t have the right to independently have their own babies? In addition to this, birth permits aren’t given to unmarried women who get pregnant, meaning that these children won’t even be able to get a hukou (residence permit) in the future unless they pay a large fine as a punishment. Does bearing children require a man for a husband? I can’t accept this kind of male chauvinism.

As pointed out by Chinese media, China has no major technological obstacles to successful egg freezing, only that there is an ethical line drawn by society as to how this assisted reproductive technology will be used. However, ethical standards aren’t impeding the progress of certain scientific research in China, such as stem cell research, which is occurring in a unregulated environment that has been called the “Wild Wild West”.

Nature reports that despite guidelines set by China’s Ministry of Health, clinics continue to provide untested medical treatments derived from stem cell research.

So while single women in China don’t have the right to control their own reproductive systems, at least Chinese scientists seem to be enjoying their freedom in China. As neurobiologist Luo Minmin said, “If I had stayed in America, the chances of making a discovery would have been lower. Here, people are willing to take risks. They give you money, and essentially you can do whatever you want.”

Related:

• Hong Kong’s Gender Imbalance Leaving a Generation of Unmarried Women
• Guangdong Has The 2nd Largest Population of “Leftover Women” in China
• Guangdong has the most singles in China, but “leftover men” a problem
• University student becomes celebrity for marrying and having kids early
• Anhui Bill Proposes “Pink Holidays” For Menstruating Women
• Did the Times Censor a Story on Foreign Abortions in China?

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Singletons attending a speed dating in mainland China.

It isn’t easy being Chinese if you’re male, a PhD candidate, and single. It’s the absolute worst if you’re also from Guizhou.

New research by the Southwestern Economics University found Chinese singles in the 20 to 30 age group scored 126 on the happiness index, which is scale from 100 to 150 with 150 being the happiest. When singles in the 30 to 40 age group were examined, the happiness index score dropped even lower to 119.8.

Perhaps the most unhappy singles in China were those with PhD degrees, whose scored 109.4 on the index. According to the research, the average score for PhDs was about 121. Contrary to the common belief that female PhDs were the least happy, research showed that male PhDs were less happy than their female counterparts, scoring 117.1 on the happiness index compared with 121.6 for the ladies.

Guizhou residents fared no better. The province’s happiness index was calculated at 118.6, well below the national average of 130.5. One reason believed to be driving Guizhou’s unhappiness is pressures involved with housing. Research showed that buying a 90 square meter apartment in the province required at least 16 years of work, which is the fifth longest in the country. Shandong, on the other hand, enjoyed the highest happiness index score at 147.5, given that it takes only seven years to buy the same-sized apartment. It’s also one of the least expensive real estate markets, along with Heilongjiang Province and Inner Mongolia.

Maybe the most interesting finding?  High-income earners, including the so-called white, rich, and pretty (白富美) and tall, rich, and handsome (高富帅), which earn more than RMB 30 per hour, enjoyed the same level of happiness with the diaosi, the self-proclaimed losers, who earned between RMB 7 to 12 per hour.

The post China’s Least Happy People are Educated Single Males (from Guizhou) appeared first on The Nanfang.

A woman reads single men’s profiles posted on a dating board.

Guangdong, the most populous Province in Southern China, is not only a draw for migrant workers; it also draws large numbers of single women. According to a list released by dating website, jiayuan.com., Guangdong has the second largest population of “leftover women” in China, second only to Beijing. Single women aged 27+ are generally considered to be ‘leftover women”, while men aged 30+ are considered “leftover men”.

The dating site attributed the high numbers of single women to the Cities’ work pressures, fast pace and lifestyle: about 80 percent reported that their life revolved around going to work and returning home. About 30 percent said they had no time for a relationship.

According to the report, Henan is home to the highest rate of bachelors, or “leftover men”, with 74 percent. The Yangcheng Evening News cited another report, indicating that “leftover” men and women invariably work as journalists, lawyers or public relations professionals. Journalists account for almost 20 percent of the China’s total leftover population, followed closely by lawyers at 18 percent, the report said. Among leftover men, computer techs are most likely to have a hard time finding a partner because, “they are introverted and socially awkward”.

Photos: China Daily 

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Women browsing single men’s information displayed on a board in a dating event in Shanghai.

While China has a lopsided sex ratio of 1,176 men for every 1,000 women, an imbalance that could leave 24 million men without a wife by 2020, the country’s special administrative region of Hong Kong is having an equally confounding problem but in reverse: a surplus of unmarried women, the result of the city’s worst gender imbalance recorded in history according to the latest official government statistics.

In 1981, the city’s sex ratio was 1,087 men for  every 1,000 women. However, 33 years later, the gender imbalance has declined to 864 men for every 1,000 women, down from 876 men recorded in 2013. This is Hong Kong’s most imbalanced gender ratio since the city first started recording it in 1961.

According to Xinhua, there are two factors behind the problem. One is the influx of mainland women who generally hold a single-entry Hong Kong visa. The other is the mass of foreign domestic workers in Hong Kong, mostly women from Philippines and Indonesia. The population of domestic helpers in Hong Kong is estimated at more than 300,000, wrote The Diplomat.

Meanwhile, the pool of unmarried Hong Kong women aged 25 or above, or the so-called “leftover women”, is also growing. In the city’s central and western district, for instance, the number of unmarried women account for 33% of the district’s total population. In Shatin district alone, there are more than 90,000 unmarried women, according to the Xinhua report, citing official figures.

As a result, the ages for marrying and child-bearing have been pushed later and later. The average age for a woman to marry has moved from 23.9 years old in 1981 to 29.1 years old in 2013. Likewise, their child-bearing age has been postponed to 31.3 in 2013.

In addition, the plight of the city’s leftover women is worsening as more of the city’s men marry mainland women across the border. There could be many reasons for this, but popular belief in Hong Kong is that mainland women are, rightly or wrongly, viewed as more compliant than the stereotyped selective and picky Hong Kong women. In 2013, close to 20,000 Hong Kong men married mainland women.

Squeezed by the worsening gender imbalance in favour of men in the city, Hong Kong women are looking to the fuerdai, the second generation of rich, on the mainland for future partners.

Dating consulting agency personnel Ou Huifang said Hong Kong’s surplus women are “perfect matches” for the mainland’s surplus men. Mainland men in general favor Hong Kong, which means they will have an additional sense of accomplishment if they can marry a Hong Kong woman, Ou continued.

But so far, the cross-border dating experiences have been disappointing for Hong Kong women as they are far too independent to fit the traditional model for mainland men, which involves seeking a “virtuous wife and caring mother”, according to another Hong Kong-based dating agency. For now, most Hong Kong women will continue to be unmarried and lonely by choice, or increasingly, by default.

Photos: Daily Mail; Reuters

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Academic Alastair Macintosh claimed that the world is a ball of strings, including economics, ecology, theology and popular culture. Most non-fiction books about China written in English in recent years tend to be happy to pull at just one string. A novel by contrast can reasonably attempt to unravel the whole ball.

“The Incarnations” by Susan Barker is a radical and fascinating novel that makes a commendable fist of doing just this. Covering over a millennium of history and most of the major themes that are currently popular with China watchers, to work with such material would – in less capable hands – be as irresponsible as playing with a ouija board. But Susan Barker, a Creative Writing M.A. who researched the book over several years after moving to China in 2007, handles it with near flawless sensitivity and skill.

Wang Jun, a Beijing cab driver, starts receiving anonymous letters from someone who claims to have been close to him over several previous lives as well as his current one. Some letters display an intimate knowledge of Wang Jun’s far from perfect family life. Others tell stories about the narrator’s relationships with Wang Jun as he was everything from a slave of Mongol invaders in the thirteenth century to a foreigner during the Qing Dynasty.

The most extraordinary of the chapters set in the past takes place during the Tang Dynasty and would stand alone as a short story. Loaded with fascinating period details, it claims that Wang Jun became a eunuch after fathering the narrator and is one of the places in which Susan Barker’s flare as a prose stylist is truly successful. In one scene, a madam gives an inexperienced young prostitute the following advice:

Men have all sorts of peccadilloes…some men like to penetrate the red during a woman’s moon cycle, or piddle on a woman out of the jade watering spout. Some men like to poke a woman in the back passage, which is called pushing the boat upstream.

As fascinating as this is, the strongest part of the novel is that set in the Hu Jintao era. It paints a convincing picture of ordinary, downtrodden Beijingers as the new China prepares to celebrate its 2008 coming out party. Every character has a compelling and believable backstory and through them, Susan Barker shows a deep engagement with the major issues in modern China that have been written about over the past decade.

We first meet Wang Jun when he is delving through garbage (Adam Minter’s “Junkyard Planet”). Wang Jun’s wife points out that girls are less important in the eyes of their parents, therefore they are freer (Leslie Chang’s “Factory Girls”). Wang Jun’s colleague Baldy Zhang is an incurable misogynist (Leta Hong Fincher’s “Leftover Women“). Wang Jun’s father is a bent government official (Philip Pan’s “Out of Mao’s Shadow”). One of the major characters is an oppressed homosexual (Richard Burger’s “Behind the Red Door”).

Whether or not Susan Barker read all these books, it is clear that her knowledge of China was won rather than scavenged. One of the major themes is China’s selectiveness in what areas of its past it’s willing to face (Louisa Lim’s “The People’s Republic of Amnesia”), but this need not distract from the fact that, for all its erudition, “The Incarnations” is best enjoyed as a thriller.

Susan Barker is a brilliant prose stylist and this book should be read out loud. Even some of the most minor details are charged with social and historical insight, such as the items that Wang Jun finds as he rummages through garbage. The notoriously difficult sex scenes are also well done.

However, Barker’s stylistic brilliance is the source of the novel’s biggest weakness – overwriting. Some of the similes, which average more than one per page in some sections, fall flat, not sufficiently defying cliche to warrant inclusion. Children are “wrapped up like little eskimoes” in winter.

This indulgent use of dazzling writing can be unappealing, like a beauty queen whose knowledge of her own hotness is to the detriment of her likability (oops, an unnecessary simile). At times, the excessive scene setting distracts from the narrative and makes the book a bit too much like a Creative Writing PhD thesis (oh bugger, another one). At times, my enjoyment of the writing declined like Wang Jun’s marriage (that’s the last one, I promise).

Moreover, Barker doesn’t always follow the principle that adverbs are guilty until proven innocent, though there is one brilliant use of the word “unfilially” towards the end. The edition I received also contains some utterly avoidable errors, although it is a pre-release version that may change prior to printing. Wang Jun’s stepmother Lin Hong is twice referred to as “Ling Hong.” Changsha is described as Mao Zedong’s hometown. The word “drank” is mixed up with the word “drunk” and the word “wedding” is mixed up with the word “marriage.”

Most of the scene setting is excellent though, such as at the beginning when Barker introduces Beijing by describing some of the passengers Wang Jun has had over the years. “Incarnations” is a genuine page turner that brings it all together quite unlike any other book about China published in the past decade.

“Incarnations” will be released in hardback on July 3 and is available on Kindle.

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Many young people get round this by paying other single people to act as their boyfriend or girlfriend for the duration of the holiday. One 27 year-old woman in Shenzhen who tried to do this had a happier ending than anybody had even hoped for.

Miss Yuan, who lives in Huanggang Subdistrict in Longgang District, is now preparing to return to her native Hubei with her “boyfriend for hire” to buy a house together, Chutian Metropolis reported yesterday.

In early February Mr. Zhou, 32, received a message in one of his QQ groups that a man was offering to act as a boyfriend for hire for just 38 yuan on Chinese New Year. A bachelor, Zhou jokingly forwarded this to all of his contacts and all of his groups, pretending to offer his own services.

Yuan did not see Zhou’s proposition as a joke and was in fact so keen that she offered to add an extra ‘0’ to the end of the asking price.

Although not convinced that she was being serious, Zhou started to chat with Yuan on QQ and they had something of a meeting of the minds which led to the exchange of phone numbers.

On the evening of February 7, Zhou had to face his parents in Huanggang and explain that he still didn’t have a girlfriend. His father’s scolding led him to promise that he would bring a girl home the following day.

The following afternoon, Zhou, a white collar worker who is based in Wuhan but whose parents live in Huanggang, called Yuan and invited her to his home. It turned out they lived less than an hour apart. On February 9, they met and immediately liked each other. Zhou’s parents were delighted to welcome a girl to their home and his mother pulled out all of the stops to make sure Yuan enjoyed the meal of her life.

That day, Yuan, who works as a tutor, had lied to her parents and told them she was just going to town to do some shopping. But upon returning home, she told her parents everything that had happened.

She told her parents that she wanted to be with Zhou and they respect her decision, Yuan told the paper. Now she is set to move to Hubei where they intend to buy a house together.

I suppose at their respective ages they can’t afford the luxury of taking it slowly.

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