What’s most startling about this national obsession with China’s Bridget Joneses is that sheer numbers would seem to say it couldn’t possibly be so. China has far too few women, not too many. This is a country where 118 boys were born for every 100 girls in 2010, and by 2020 the number of men unable to find partners is expected to reach 24 million. So how could any women possibly be left over?

As science journalist Mara Hvistendahl, author of Unnatural Selection, and numerous scholars have documented, a confluence of factors has led to this deeply male-skewed national sex ratio. For centuries, Chinese families preferred male children because girls were obliged to leave home eventually and move into their husband’s household rather than stay and take care of their parents; the advent of the one-child policy in 1980 only increased the stakes. Over the next decade and a half, the newly widespread availability of ultrasound scans led to a dramatic uptick in sex-selective abortions — banned since 1995 but still easy enough to arrange. The upshot is that by the 2020s, an estimated 15 to 20 percent of Chinese men of marriageable age will lack potential brides, according to Jiang Quanbao of Xi’an Jiaotong University. You might think this would create a sense of entitled ease among China’s single ladies, but the reality is rather more complicated, as the attentive supplicants to the Spicy Love Doctor attest.

“Why do sheng nu happen now in China?” Wu asked. After a dramatic pause, she answered her own question: “It is a result of high GDP growth.” At this point, several women in the audience fidgeted, wary of an economics sermon, but Wu continued. “In the past, there was no such word as sheng nu. But today women have more wealth and education — they have better jobs, and higher requirements for men.” She reflected: “Now you want to find a man you have deep feelings for who also has a house and a car. You won’t all find that.”

She wasn’t telling the women they should want less, exactly. What she was really pointing out was just how much better today’s Chinese women have it. Thirty years ago, a marriage certificate was a passport into adulthood. “Until you married, there were no basic human rights. No right to have sex before marriage. No house allocated by your danwei [government work unit] before marriage.” Today those barriers have crumbled, with rising sexual freedom and a booming private real estate market. Why marry unless you find someone just right? “The future is different,” Wu predicted, waving her arms for emphasis. China’s big cities will be filled with sheng nu. “Those who can bear the shortcomings and sufferings of men will get married,” she concluded. “Those not, single.”

For more on “leftover women,” read an article by Leta Hong Fincher on the Ms. Magazine blog. Read more about China’s gender imbalance and the one-child policy via CDT.

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: gender imbalance, marriage, one-child policy, women's rights
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Domestic violence everywhere lives in the shadows, and in China it thrives in a secrecy instilled by tradition that holds family conflicts to be private. It is also hard to go public in a country where many still consider women subservient to their husbands, and there is no specific national law against domestic violence.

At least one in four women in China is estimated to have been a victim of domestic violence at some point in her life, surveys show, with the rate in rural areas as high as two out of every three women. The violence takes many forms, from physical and sexual assault to emotional abuse or economic deprivation.

Lee’s case has spawned tens of thousands of postings on Chinese Twitter-like sites, along with protests and talk show debates. It is especially explosive because she is a foreigner, at a time when China is particularly sensitive about how it is understood and treated by the world.

“A lot of people said, ‘Oh, is it because Kim is an American and so she’s too strong-willed, or her personality is too strong?’…Some others have asked whether she is making a big fuss over a small issue,” says Feng Yuan, founder and chair of the Anti-Domestic Violence Network in Beijing. “This shows that in terms of the public perception of domestic violence, we still have a long way to go.”

Read more about domestic violence in China via CDT, including a recent article in Ms. Magazine, “Wives Caught in China’s ‘Web of Abuse.’“

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: domestic violence, family, Li Yang, women's rights
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

The latest government figures reveal that one quarter of China’s women have experienced domestic violence. Yet feminist activists say that figure is understated.

Li Ying, director of the Yuanzhong Gender Development Center in Beijing, says that many women do not admit that they are victims of domestic violence. “Ask a woman if she has experienced domestic violence and she will say, ‘Oh no, of course not!’” says Li. “Ask her if her husband has hit her and she will say, ‘Yes.’”

Even when Chinese women report domestic violence, the police are usually incapable of protecting them. Li acted as the attorney for the parents of Dong Shanshan, a woman murdered in 2009 by her husband after she had called the police eight times to report domestic violence. After Dong’s death, her husband was sentenced to just six and a half years in prison for “ill-treatment” of a spouse.

Read more about domestic violence in China via CDT.

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: domestic violence, women's rights
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Since the founding of the People’s Republic in 1949 only two women have been appointed governor of any of the country’s 31 provinces and four biggest municipalities; none serve now. By contrast, 32 women have been elected governors of the 50 U.S. states in that time.

The marginalization of half the talent pool matters because China relies on state-owned, “national champions” to help drive economic growth while preparing for a surge of retirees. The full potential of China’s women isn’t being tapped in those parts of the economy and government that are shaping the country’s future.

“In business, women advance mainly through their own abilities,” said Li Chunling, a scholar at Beijing’s Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. “In government, advancement depends on whether your boss likes you or not.”

Pan Jintang, a professor at Beijing’s People’s University who specializes in women’s employment and welfare, said the small number of female political leaders is a natural result of the economic overhauls inaugurated more than 30 years ago. Under Mao’s Communist regime, women were promoted in government and industry as “useless decoration,” he said.

Although female entrepreneurs have experienced success, women in China face other difficulties, such as unequal incomes. The New York Times adds:

Women’s incomes are falling relative to men’s; traditional attitudes are relegating women to the home; and women’s net wealth may be shrinking. While female parliamentary representation elsewhere is rising, the percentage of women in China’s national legislature, the National People’s Congress, has flat-lined for decades at just over 20 percent.

Clearly, women in China have more rights than their sisters in Afghanistan or Saudi Arabia. Women in Egypt and other Arab states see their rights endangered or already curbed by the rise in Islamists’ power since the Arab Spring.

But China — such a rising force in other fields — is not emulating India, Europe, Latin America or African nations like South Africa and Rwanda in thrusting women to the fore.

In part, this is because the Communists fear exactly what they see in Ms. Liu: an individual demanding rights in a one-party state. As she put it, “Actually, the problem is that no Chinese citizen has any status.”

Update: Didi Kirsten Tatlow, the author of the New York Times article, also posted a piece about reporting it.

Read more about women’s rights in China and about women in politics, via CDT.

© Melissa M. Chan for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: communist party, Communist party politics, Gender discrimination, gender equality, women in politics, women's rights
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Whereas “Occupy” movements planted themselves in financial districts around the world to protest against economic unfairness, in China a new target for occupation has emerged: men’s public toilets. The Occupiers? A group of young women who have tired of standing in long queues for the ladies’ loo only to watch their male compatriots traipsing casually in and out of the gents’. They are fighting for what their American counterparts have called “potty parity”. In an ideal state of public convenience, the thinking goes, women would not have to endure the long queues created by a simple 1:1 allocation of toilet space, female-to-male. It is waiting times, not toilet seats, that should be shared equally. The Occupiers are calling for a corrective adjustment.

The first Chinese Occupation happened in Guangzhou on February 19th. The protest’s organiser, a university student named Li Tingting, helped stage another in Beijing a week later. She has since mentioned plans to carry out a third in Shenzhen. These are just the type of attention-grabbing mass events that tend to get noticed by the country’s ruling officials, who are gathering at the opening of their annual National People’s Congress early next week.

NBC’s China-focused blog “Behind the Wall” went to Guangzhou to talk with the campaign’s organizer:

Li Maizi, the 23-year-old campaign organizer who insisted on using a pseudonym, told a local newspaper that the purpose was to raise the awareness of the public and the government.

“It seems like women and men are equal with the same amount of public bathrooms built for them. But the physical differences make them spend a different amount of time in the toilet – so it’s just not fair,” said Li.

Li, along with a few other young women, asked male passers-by who wanted to use the guy’s bathroom “do you mind waiting for a few minutes because the line in front of female toilet is too long?” They held signs reading “love women, starting with convenience” and “the more convenience, the more sexual equality.” Convenience in Chinese also means “to use a toilet.”

 [...]When asked where the idea of “occupying” originated, Li said she borrowed it from “Occupy Wall Street.”“It echoes the campaign over there, although we are not connected at all,” she said.

© josh rudolph for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: gender equality, occupy, protest, women's rights
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

In China, the sexist term “leftover woman,” sheng nu, is widely used to describe an urban, professional female over the age of 27 who is still single. This derogatory term has been aggressively disseminated by the Chinese government, warning women that they will become spinsters if they do not marry by the time they turn 30. The irony of the media campaign is that China’s sex-ratio imbalance has resulted in a surplus of tens of millions of men who will not be able to find a bride.

In 2007, China’s Ministry of Education added the term “leftover woman” to its official lexicon, according to state media reports. In 2010, the All-China Women’s Federation and other government groups carried out a nationwide survey of more than 30,000 people in 31 provinces. Their findings on “leftover women” have been publicized repeatedly by China’s official media.

[...] China’s preference for boys, combined with its one-child policy, has resulted in the abortion of tens of millions of female fetuses. But does the resulting sex-ratio imbalance mean that women really have the upper hand in the marriage market? Although some women no doubt have married for money, I have so far found very little evidence that women overall have turned their scarcity into economic gain. On the contrary, my research suggests that Chinese women have largely missed out on what is arguably the biggest accumulation of real estate wealth in history, valued at more than $17 trillion in 2010, according to HSBC Bank. Many women have been shut out of the explosion of housing wealth because homes appreciating exponentially in value tend to be registered solely in the man’s name. Chinese parents tend to buy homes for sons but not daughters. And women often transfer all of their financial assets to their husband or boyfriend to finance the purchase of a home registered in the man’s name alone.

I believe that a key reason why so many educated women in their mid-20s act against their own economic interests when they marry is that they genuinely believe the government-propagated myth about “leftover women.” These women make excessive personal and financial compromises out of fear that they will never find a husband otherwise.

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2011. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: gender equality, gender imbalance, marriage, women's rights
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Kim Lee, wife of the “Crazy English” founder Li Yang, also posted several messages together with Monday’s picture lashing out at Li’s irresponsibility. 

Lee wrote, “I am done waiting for you to face your responsibilities as you continue promoting yourself! I didn’t post all the photos, but you seem to have forgotten how unacceptable your actions were. Only your hands are stronger than mine Li Yang. My character is kindhearted but not weak!”

Meanwhile, Lee stated her fearlessness to pressure imposed by Li Ning, the sister-in-law. In another message posted on Monday as well, she wrote, “…dear sister-in-law: I know my home is in your name. I don’t care if you refuse to pay the management fee. This does not scare me.”

In addition to the comments made by Lee yesterday, Shanghaiist also posted an announcement by Li Yang on Sina Weibo last weekend that he has decided to convert to Islam:

In a tweet on Sina Weibo, Li said,

” 我打算学习和信奉伊斯兰教，就因为《古兰经》中的一句话：学者的墨汁贵于烈士的鲜血。让我们真正去了解伊斯兰教！我为我以前对伊斯兰教的误解而感到羞耻！万物非主，惟有真主，独一无二。”I have decided to learn and to believe in Islam because of a verse in the Quran which says the ink of scholars is more precious than the blood of martyrs. Let us all understand the true Islam! I am ashamed of my previous misconceptions on Islam! There is no God but Allah.

 See also previous CDT coverage of domestic violence in China.

© Scott Greene for China Digital Times (CDT), 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: domestic violence, islam, sina weibo, women's rights
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

You do not have to look far for part of the explanation. Shengzhou is, it boasts, International Necktie City of the 21st Century, making 350m ties a year – or 40% of the world’s supply – as well as huge quantities of gas stoves and cone diaphragms for speakers.

Its factories offer plenty of jobs for daughters, allowing them to make a hefty economic contribution to the household. Across the country, manufacturers have frequently preferred female employees, regarding them as more careful and less troublesome.

Many rural families have less land than they used to; and machinery is available to work the soil, making brute strength less important. China is beginning to develop a welfare system. And development has brought other changes – couples who move into cities have more exposure to new ideas, and less pressure from extended families, say experts.

Old habits and beliefs are eroding. In villages as well as towns, conjugal ties between husband and wife have become more important, while the filial links between parent and child have become less so. Young couples are more likely to live apart from relatives. Few parents can now count on a dutiful daughter-in-law caring for them; and many are noticing that daughters are doing a better job.

Read more about China’s gender gap via CDT. A recent book by Mara Hvistendahl, Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys Over Girls, and the Consequences of a World Full of Men Asia’s Disappearing Daughters, looks at the problem throughout Asia.

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: family, gender imbalance, women's rights
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

When Ma Jihong became pregnant for a third time, she looked forward to expanding her family. So many neighbours had broken China’s strict birth quotas she thought she could too.

But six months later she died in panic on an operating table after officials in Lijin, Shandong province, forced her into a late-term abortion, relatives have said ….

“Although the policies are less extreme than in previous decades, it is a mistake to think these issues have disappeared,” said Nicholas Bequelin, the senior Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Sanctions, fines and forced abortions continue to be imposed on rural women.”

See also past CDT coverage of forced abortion and forced sterilisation.

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: birth control, family planning, forced abortion, forced sterilization, women's rights
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Oftentimes, what state-run news outlets don’t say is as important as what they do say. Today, for example, the Xinhua news agency only has a three-paragraph brief on the Liberian and Yemeni women who won the Nobel Peace Prize this morning, and other major sites aren’t covering the news at all. The Xinhua item includes “Backgrounders” on past winners of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, and Physics. But there’s no Backgrounder on Peace. Why? Last year’s winner was dissident Chinese writer and human rights advocate Liu Xiaobo, who remains in prison ….

Also absent from Xinhua’s coverage were denunciations of the prize as “a farce” awarded by “clowns” indulging in “Cold War practices”.

Human rights groups, on the other hand, drew attention to the continued imprisonment of Liu Xiaobo and house arrest of his wife, Liu Xia:

Mr. Liu has rarely been allowed to talk to family members since the Nobel committee made its announcement on Oct. 8, 2010, and he has been allowed to leave the prison where he is being held in Liaoning Province only once, according to the groups, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and China Human Rights Defenders. Ms. Liu has been kept under detention in the couple’s home in Beijing but has not been charged with any crime.

“The only thing that would force the government to reassess the decision is if there was some strong international pressure on China in this case, but the pressure is not there,” Nicholas Bequelin, a researcher for Human Rights Watch, said in a telephone interview. “There’s no incentive for the government to revisit this decision. We’re talking about a climate where standing defiantly against the West is reaping more political awards than collaborating.”

Human Rights Watch accused the authorities of attempting to deflect criticism by allowing family visits to Liu Xiaobo ahead of the 2011 Nobel announcement and anniversary of his own award:

In early October, the Chinese government allowed Liu’s brothers to release information that Liu had been allowed out of prison briefly on September 18 to see family members. They also said that Liu’s wife, Liu Xia, who has been held under legally baseless house arrest since the prize was announced, was allowed to visit Liu Xiaobo in August. Liu’s brothers’ reports of Liu’s apparent good health were positive news, Human Rights Watch said, but the Chinese government’s consistent refusal until those visits to allow him the family visits permitted under criminal law are cause for serious concern.

That this information was made available in the days before the Nobel anniversary, a time of renewed interest in Liu’s case, reflects the Chinese government’s calculated and cynical strategy to blunt international criticism, underscoring the extent to which Chinese authorities will go to avoid negative publicity, Human Rights Watch said.

See also China’s Jailed Nobel Laureate One Year Later, on CDT.

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2011. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Amnesty International, human rights defenders, human rights watch, Liu Xiaobo, Nobel Peace Prize, Nobel Prize, women's rights
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall