This week in my daily news reading, I saw that China Daily posted two surprising articles about divorce, marriage and gender discrimination. I often find it unexpected when I see these kinds of articles, but since they're happening with more frequency, maybe those proofreaders in Beijing and the party members in charge of the paper are bending a little when it comes to discussing social issues.
China's one child policy may have been good for population control, but with the pre-existing notions that male children are better, especially in China’s more rural areas, it’s proved problematic with too many males and too few females. Worst of all, it's jeopardized women's safety with increased numbers of kidnappings and more cases of being sold into marriages. I've read many historical fiction books about China pre-1900s and what's going on in these more remote places seems more like "imperial China" than "improving China".
On a not-so-serious note, it's also produced a generation of (self-centered, selfish, self-absorbed and any other negative word with self) only children. I really couldn't help but laugh when I saw that a study showed that 20 percent of respondents cited an "over-indulgence in Web games" as a cause of their divorce. Really? Only in China.
But at least the people interviewed in the article knew what had gone wrong, could admit that they rushed into the marriage and that being an only child made it “difficult to live with others” – points of which I have made on NYAFC before. And as long as they're able to identify these points and talk about it, maybe it will help younger generations to not make similar mistakes when marrying. Hopefully it will also address some of the underlying social issues that still face the country.
All I know is I'm happy to not be one of them. If I was Chinese my grandma would be hounding me because to get married and not focus so much on my career. Thankfully, mine doesn't.
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