From the Guardian: “For years, psychological disorders were ignored or treated as the product of decadent foreign societies, but a flood of studies has revealed that China has some of the biggest mental health problems in the world, particularly among rural women and urban schoolchildren.
Last week the Beijing Suicide Research and Prevention Centre reported that China had 22 suicides for every 100,000 people, almost 50 per cent higher than the global average.”
“The rate in the countryside was three times higher than in urban centres, reflecting a growing gap between poor inland farms and rich coastal cities. With more men leaving villages to work as migrant labourers, women have less support in dealing with the pressures of motherhood, farming and moving out of their home villages to marry.
In rural areas, 30 women in every 100,000 take their own lives. More than half use pesticides. Those that want revenge on their communities throw themselves down the village well, polluting the water supply. ”
