For CNN’s “On China,” Tsinghua University scholar Leta Hong Fincher interviews Chinese women who are upending the stereotype of “leftover women,” by choosing to remain single into their 30s:
Men are still thinking in the old ways, but women’s values have evolved. I feel very relaxed now,” said Zhang, who just received a sales job offer.
Lan Fang, a 32-year-old client relations manager for a financial company in Shanghai, similarly embraces her single lifestyle. She enjoys a relatively high income of 20,000 RMB a month (around US$3,200) and often goes out with friends to dinners, movies and concerts.
“Where I grew up in Nanjing, I saw so many couples getting into big fights, and most of them seemed unhappy. Plus, so many men have affairs,” Lan said. “My life in Shanghai now is very rich, why would I want to change it?”
Zhang and Lan are in the minority, but their attitudes reflect the reality that marriage in today’s China does little to protect women’s rights. [Source]
Read more about “leftover women” and women’s rights in China, via CDT.
