In a recent study, it has been found that approximately 24 million men of marrying age in China will find a drastic lack of potential wives in the next ten years. China's one-child policy has led to a dramatic decrease in the female population, which will in turn mean that in the next decade there will be an unavoidable rise in intergenerational marriages (I expect an "ew" here from a lot of you). The one-child policy, implemented three decades ago, has prevented an estimated 400 million births (a majority of which are female, due to the traditional preference for male heirs). China has stated that they will not rescind the policy for at least another decade.
This article also reminded me of another significant topic in terms of populations around the world: Japan. While China has been forced to use such policies in order to reduce their growth rate (an expected 200 million enter child-bearing age in the next decade), Japan faces the polar opposite problem. With a general trend of declining birth rates for the past 40 years (broken by a slight rise in 2006) and one of the highest life expectancies in the world, Japan faces a different population crisis. The cause can be attributed to many factors both social and economic, but the problem remains definite.
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7 comments:
I am not sure I would call a lack of women a deficit... Isn't deficit used for monetary things?
It is seems so strange to have laws that limit child birth, although the issue probably has a lot more to it...
It's so sad to think that it's the twenty first century and parents in China would still rather have a son or a daughter. No wonder there are more and more people in the U.S going to China to adopt baby girls.
son than a daughter*
They brought this on themselves. They only wanted boys, because the government figured males would benefit them more significantly rather than females. I mean they literally forced Chinese parents to dump their female babies in a dumpster for crying out loud.
'Nuff said.
-Andrew Oxendine 3*
Drew, I don't think the government forced any female babies to be put in a dumpster. They enforce the one child per family to keep the population down. You also have to understand the culture of traditional Chinese and understand how extreme it can get and how relatively common it is. Families preferred males over females because males will carry on the family line. Traditional Chinese culture reinforces this idea rather strongly. Is it enough for most Chinese to kill a fetus or a female child? No, but it still does influence enough to make a dent. I do not believe this was an intended side-effect or it could have even been predicted.
I COULD HAVE USED THIS IN MY CHINESE ORAL FINAL LAST SEMESTER... *sigh*
Anyways, Frankie, I believe that this isn't a direct side-effect of the One Child Policy, but the policy definitely had a lot to do with it. Had the policy not been in place, families may not have felt the need to choose which child to reject. Of course, had the policy not been in effect, China's population would be skyrocketing exponentially, but with it in place and males being favored over females, the China is now facing the issue of less women in the coming years which means less chance of procreating.
Well, I guess one super small semi-upside to this is what Cynthia said to me on the way back from the Grammy's yesterday: "Being a soon-to-be super minority of a Chinese female, since we're going to be essentially an endangered species, I could totally use that to my advantage on my college apps!" LOL
-Annie Yang
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