LA Times article, China: A future nation of bachelors? By Joshua Kurlantzick The country's love of male children may create a dangerous underclass and prematurely gray the population.

Usual points brought up: 120 boys for every 100 girls born due to cheap ultrasound. One child policy. Same thing is happening in India, Korea, and Taiwan. In Taiwan and Korea, there are advertisements to go Vietnam to get a wife. In Taiwan, many men go to China to get a wife. Article did not mention that boys are a form of Social Security and when women marry, they are seen as becoming part of the groom's family.

What was new:
Nien Rebellion - happened about same time as Taiping rebellion, and the article suggests that part of the reason was the imbalance of men to women. Book that mentioned this issue is Bare Branches: The Security Implications of Asia's Surplus Male Population Excerpt from the book:

Population dynamics have a way of catching people unaware, and sometimes producing havoc. The worldwide baby boomers, born between 1945 and 1965, began coming of age in the late 1960s and produced an equally worldwide epidemic of violence. From the anti-Vietnam War movements to the Chinese Cultural Revolution, it was the great surge of young people taking to the streets who produced the violence. More recently, population aging has caught the attention...

Peter Drucker commented that you could look at the average age of a society, and it could tell you a lot about it. Peter's example I remember from one lecture was in the 1960's in the US, there was a lower average age that led to a lot of changes (Baby Boomers). Now America is growing older that is leading to less changes.

For those interested in related products for Children, hmmm, The Mouse Bride Cute book about a mouse and her suitors.

Labels: Chinese Culture, Chinese Demographics