china

[Kamandi]

beijing-china is asking where all the girls have gone?
and the sobering answer is that this vast nation, now the world's fastest-growing economy, is confronting a self-perpetuated demographic disaster that some experts describe as "gendercide" -- the phenomenom caused by millions of families resorting to abortion and infanticide to make sure their one child was a boy.
the age-old bias for boys, combined with china's draconian one-child policy imposed since 1980, has produced what gu baochang, a leading chinese expert on family planning, described as "the largest, the highest, and the longest" gender imbalance in the world.
09/14/2004
read more
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5953508
___
only one child
westerners are not the only ones who covet chinese wives. a confluence of two forces have made chinese women in great demand here in china as well. the first is the chinese government's famous "one child" policy to address the problem of unsupportable population growth. under this policy, unapproved pregnancies are subject to forced abortions and sometimes forced sterilization. this policy is in effect in the big cities only; families in the countryside are permitted to have 2 children, but some have up to 3 or 4 kids, who are unreported and consequently receive no education.

then there's the ancient and still-ubiquitous preference for a son, which means that if you can only have one, well, by golly, it had better count! So ultrasounds and voluntary abortions are up as well, and now the ratio of men to women (on average) is about 1.3:1. this has created a backcountry business of abducting and selling women to farmers who want companionship and also need children to help run the farm.

according to many teachers i've spoken to, the one-child policy has also resulted in spoiled children who are used to growing up as the center of attention and treated as "little emperors"; they don't work as hard as previous generations, and are said to be ill-prepared to deal with adult life. (sound familiar?) this is in stark contrast to the other stories which say how competitive the job market is and how hard modern students must work. another disconnect? (i think it is entirely possible that they are both true; it is more competitive and they are more lazy.)

and one more thing that doesn't make sense - the girls in my classes are an order of magnitude smarter than the boys. interestingly, this has been confirmed by every other teacher i've spoken to. why haven't the women taken over by now??
(okay, that's a rhetorical question. but still I found it to be a fascinating surprise.)
china is safer than america (not surprising - most countries see america as one of the most dangerous places to live in the world).
read more
www.friedmanarchives.com/China/Web/Chapter21/Chapter21.htm
___
shanghai, china— alongside food and fire crackers, chinese are adding a new item to their lunar new year shopping:
adult diapers. (01/24/ 2006)
sales have soared ahead of the holiday as travelers prepare for long trips home aboard trains so crowded that even the toilets are jammed with people.
in foshan, a southern industrial city with a large migrant population, supermarkets report diaper sales have risen 50 percent since the main travel season began.
read more
abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1536906
___
china review (09/13/2005)
welcometothefair.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=27
___
china's compitalists: worst of both worlds (11/12/2003)
www.atimes.com/atimes/China/EK12Ad03.html
___
road to china (august 2003)
www.friedmanarchives.com/China/Web/TOC.HTM

[kevin]

travel adventures
www.friedmanarchives.com/

[daisy]

now parents must use set menu to pick baby's name
in beijing alone, more than 3,000 men are called
li wei — or li mighty — and another 3,000 share the name
Li Jie — or li distinguished.
the situation is no better for girls.
more than 4,300 are called wang jade orchid.
not anymore.
the ministry of public security has drawn up new rules and babies’ names must in future be drawn from a database that excludes thousands of rare chinese characters.
out go indecipherable names. with the introduction of electronic identity cards, the authorities will register only names that they decide to include on their database.
03/18/2006
www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0%2C%2C25689-2091462%2C00.html