China’s annual Two Sessions political meetings recently drew to a close, minus the presence of National People’s Congress (NPC) Chairman Zhao Leji, the nation’s third most senior official. (Zhao’s unexpected absence was...
Marriage rates in China continued to plummet last year, deepening the country’s demographic crisis and highlighting the public’s changing attitudes towards marriage, childbirth, family planning, and more. Despite government...
China’s State Council unveiled new policies last week intended to promote parenthood and foster a more “reproduction-friendly society,” which were met with muted skepticism. Along with other media pieces on the subject,...
Confronted with a rapidly aging population, a declining birthrate, and socioeconomic shifts that have made younger people less likely to marry or have children, China’s State Council this week unveiled a new slate of policies...
One of the latest trends on Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu is for women to share complaints about pushy government inquiries on whether they are pregnant or plan to be soon. The Chinese government has responded to two...
The Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs has unveiled a revised draft law that would make it simpler to register marriages and potentially more difficult to divorce. The proposed changes, billed as helping to create a “family...
CCTV commentators covering the opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics fell silent during a skit hinting at a ménage à trois, a scene inspired by the great French writer Victor Hugo’s line, “The freedom to love is no less...
On April 14, Sina News Hot Topics published a lengthy article on Weibo under the clickbait headline “The First Batch of DINKs, Exposed: Where Are They Now, and Do They All Regret Not Having Kids?” The four-part article focused...
According to reports on Hunan TV, Global Times, and related WeChat public accounts, the spouses of 140 high-ranking cadres in Hunan province recently attended an “anti-corruption” educational activity sponsored by the provincial...
This year’s March 8 U.N. International Women’s Day slogan “Invest in Women: Accelerate Progress” draws attention to the $360 billion annual deficit in gender-equality measures by 2030. According to the United Nations, there are...
A provincial campaign to jumpstart cadres out of timidity and “formalism” raised hackles online for framing “ideological liberation” as adherence to Xi Jinping Thought. A notice published to a website run by Hunan’s Provincial...
China’s population decline looks set to continue despite the possibility of a traditional Dragon-Year “baby bump” and signs of a post-pandemic uptick in marriage rates after nine successive years of decline. A recent report from...
As China’s Lunar New Year holiday continues throughout this week, CDT Chinese editors have collected and republished over a dozen essays, articles, and other content reflecting the zeitgeist of the transition from 2023’s Year of...
China’s demographic changes have made headlines again this week, as the government released statistics showing that the country’s population has declined for a second year in a row. Pronatalist policies appear to have done...
In 2014, Leta Hong Fincher published her first book, Leftover Women: The Resurgence of Gender Inequality in China, which used the lens of home ownership and marital property rights to examine women’s rights in China and the...
The sudden and unexplained closure of a number of WeChat accounts dedicated to gay, trans, asexual, and feminist issues marks the latest setback for LGBTQ+ and women’s speech rights in China. The mass account closures happened...
“Four Won’t Youth” (四不青年, sì bù qīngnián) is the latest appellation for discontented youth, who in this case “won’t date, won’t marry, won’t buy a home, and won’t have kids.” Four Won’t Youth, like other similar terms...
The shuttering of the Beijing LGBT Center marks the latest setback for China’s queer community. In a terse statement published to WeChat, the Center offered no explanation for its sudden closure beyond force majeure. Founded in...
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