Why China and India face a marriage crisis | The Economist
China and India – home to a third of humanity – both face a marriage crisis that will last for generations. A mere five years ago marriage patterns were normal in the two countries.Now in China 50m ‘guanggun’ – ‘bare branches’ – look doomed to bachelor-dom, while in India 500 year-old laws are being revised to allow men to marry out of caste, village and state.
What has lead to this marriage squeeze? First, millions women have gone “missing”.
A generation ago, a preference for sons and the greater availability of prenatal screening meant first Chinese couples, then Indian ones, started aborting female fetuses and only giving birth to boys. At its extreme, in parts of Asia, more than 120 boys were being born for every 100 girls. Now, the generation with distorted sex ratios at birth is reaching marriageable age.
The result is that single men far outnumber women.
If China had had a normal sex ratio at birth, its female population in 2010 would have been 720m. In fact, it was only 655m, compared with almost 705m men and boys—50m surplus husbands.
Fertility rates then accentuate this distortion.
When a country’s fertility rate is going down (as in India) younger cohorts of people will tend to be smaller than older ones. If men are older than women at marriage, as they usually are, there will be fewer potential brides than husbands because women will have been born later, when fertility is lower.
Then there is a queuing effect. Men who cannot find a wife right away go on looking, and competing with younger men. As a result, the number of unmarried men piles up, as in a queue. By 2060, there could be more than 160 Chinese and Indian men wanting to marry for every 100 women.
This is a ferocious squeeze in countries where marriage has always been a basic requirement for being a full member of society. It could be hugely harmful. Almost everywhere, large numbers of single men are associated with high rates of crime and violence. No one really knows how these two giant countries will react.
Comments
Female infanticide is a sad reality for India still…now we are in this situation where Indian men are being kidnapped and being forced to marry. Hope it gets better
Wasn’t the article about India AND China?
VNM
A recent reference was made of China’s situation in a article that touted the success of dating sites connecting American women with Chinese men. I’m sure that similar sites are to be found in other countries. Asian females and White males have the highest rate of interracial marriages whereas Asian males and White females had the lowest. This has to do with Asian men not wanting to marry outside their race/culture and white females finding them the least attractive for this very reason. What the old saying “when the fox can’t get at the grapes it claims it’s sour.” This gender imbalance means that Asian males will have to adapt if they desire marriages to females over the other alternatives available. Most Asian males are highly educated, successful, and stable which make them great husband material anyway. They just need to stop being so selective.
Was awaiting some more uniformed and bigoted (Trump-style) bashing before responding with the major cause.
India’s marriage crisis is the direct legacy of the British colonialist policies and to a lesser extent Muslim rule in India. On the colonialist actions I will rely on extensive research by an Indian feminist historian researcher – Veena Oldenburg, Prof at the Grad Ctre, City U. of New York. In ‘Dowry Murder – The Imperial Origins of a Cultural Crime’ – as the name suggests, she writes: “there was in the colonial period a profound loss of women’s economic power and social worth. This was a direct consequence of the radical creation of property rights in land…[I]mperial policies created a more ‘masculine’ economy and deepened the preference for sons that fostered the overt or hidden murder of girls. The establishment of property rights for peasants, inflexible tax demands and collection regimens, and a host of other imperial measures prepared the ground…”
In the Punjab region, (before formation of Pak., where invaders came through, eg., Alexander and most recently, beginning in the 7th C. with Muslims) “the age-old desire [was] for families to have more sons in a historically war-torn region. This need for a family with many more boys than girls was greatly intensified in the colonial period.”
To know more of these horrendous policies, read her book (two different editions) and look at this Tharoor’s video to understand the destruction which the British colonialist policies wrought on the “Jewel of the Crown”, India.
Furthermore, the Bollywood movie “Lagaan” deals with these harsh land policies. Worth a watch – has a couple beautifully,touching songs as well.
I will deal more widely on the issues in a much delayed book aimed at chastising the coconut Guyanese historian, Clem Seecharan, for his unfounded bashing of India, Hindus and the Indian indentured labourers to Guiana/Caribbean.
Veda Nath Mohabir
Gigi: It is not surprising that the Asian (including Indian) male is not seen as attractive to Western women vis a vis the Asian female to Western men. To my mind the survey didn’t pick up on other cultural factors such as what the Asian male looks for in a Western female and his competence/confidence in approaching a female.
What makes Asian females attractive to Western men is their more obeisant and ‘tamer’/less aggressive disposition. As well, the Asian female doesn’t need to have the social skills to approach the male. She can sit back and expect to be approached. This is so even if her competence in English is not very high.
On the other hand, her Asian male counterpart needs the social skills/confidence, assertiveness (and language skills) to approach a Western female; and Asian males are not socialized/acculturated in these assets.
Western women are not looking for such ‘soft’ men even if they are well educated, so the men are very disadvantaged in finding a mate. First, the Asian female is attractive to Western suitors, so he has stiff competition here; and he is not attractive to the relatively more aggressive Western female with more expressive/in-your-face mores. (Note how many women, while complaining of “Me Too” have more than one-half their bosoms on display. This won’t go over well with more conservative Asian males).
This ‘soft’ Indian (specifically Hindu) male suffered under British colonialism. You will see in Dowry Murder that the Hindu Bengali men were considered “effeminate” vis a vis ‘testosterone laden’ Muslim (meat-eating) men by the British. Muslims were favoured over Hindus.
As well, I am letting you into a portion of my upcoming book:
“These ‘effeminate’ Hindu men was scathingly attacked by American historian, Katherine Mayo, who wrote in 1935 The Face of Mother India which 27 editions later sold over one quarter million copies in the USA alone and which influenced American foreign policy on India and which Mahatma Gandhi wrote a scathing criticism of) as ‘shaping American ideas about India’ by its glorification of the ‘testosterone-laden’ rapacious Muslim plunderer and ravager, Mahamud Ghazni (971-1030CE), who ravished India 17 times in 25 years and ‘turned the former provincial city of Ghazna into the wealthy capital of an extensive empire which covered most of today’s Afghanistan, eastern Iran, and Pakistan, by looting the riches and wealth from the then Indian subcontinent’ (Wikipedia); and lionizing ‘Muslims for their fighting spirit to extend their (One God) faith’ in India. Mayo compared Ghazni to the Biblical Joshua, Gideon and David because he was ready to ‘throw away life itself for the honour of the One God’ ”.
Incidentally, Indian males have the same disadvantage in Guyana and the wider Caribbean. I have heard, since my youth, Indian guys subjected to similar derogatory assessments. This also plays out in the political arena where an Indian is not seen fit (manly enough) to lead government.
VNM
It is unclear if the Lagaan movie storyline is true. But the imperial British decimated the Indian economy and people as Tharoor explains; and I will delve into more deeply in my book. Lagaan = Taxation. And the movie depicts a drought-ridden community having to pay the fixed/rigid taxes anyway. So, a cricket match was agreed where the peasant would have to pay 3x the taxes if they lost while the British would forgo taxes for three years. The peasants never played cricket previously and had to learn the game with the help of the regiment commander’s sister. Yet they won.
But there is an equivalent story in Bengal where a local barefooted team beat the British in football/soccer in 1905. Lord Curzon had partitioned Bengal to please the AGA Khan, et al, on behalf of Muslims in exchange for fealty, giving them the larger eastern portion (approx.. modern Bangladesh, earlier East Pak, today). The irony is that the barefooted, “effeminate Hindu” team beat the robust, meat-eating, ‘testosterone laden’ British Army’s East Yorkshire Regiment, which helped to bring new life to the Indian independence movement.
https://www.indiatimes.com/news/sports/104-years-ago-mohun-bagans-reallife-lagaan-moment-changed-indian-history-heres-its-story-243602.html
As a Sunday bonus, here are a three beautiful songs from Lagaan (apparently the movie is on YouTube). The first is a prayer to the nirgun=unseen, paalanahare=nurturant Lord for rain & pity and is haunting (to me. Once I listen it stays in my head).
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=lagaan+song+for+rain&&view=detail&mid=E5A58CB14972D8CC8406E5A58CB14972D8CC8406&&FORM=VDRVRV
The second is lighter and depicts playful scene between supposedly Krishna and consort, Radha, with a bit of jealousy tossed in. Dance semi-classical and is wonderful, as well (not like the trashy modern Bollywood ones)
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=lagaan&view=detail&mid=6BA7D617CCD1FC0813476BA7D617CCD1FC081347&FORM=VIRE
Here is a third depicting the love triangle.
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=lagaan&&view=detail&mid=DC3C25A10E5B7AFBD55CDC3C25A10E5B7AFBD55C&rvsmid=6BA7D617CCD1FC0813476BA7D617CCD1FC081347&FORM=VDRVRV
VNM.
“What makes Asian females attractive to Western men is their more obeisant and ‘tamer’/less aggressive disposition”
The word I hear often from white men is “submissive”
Albert- Don’t kid yourself Guyana is full of shitholes. Look at all those smelly latrines all over the country. You have to hold your nose when you walk by.
Many places in the world are like that and that is what Trump means when he talks about shitholes. The white man did not to develop basic amenities in the colonies. All he cared about was the wealth he could get out of those colonies. I’m not sure its easy to get a visa from Guyana to US. You are clearly out of touch.
@VNM, granted that Asian men do also come off as shy but that does not deter aggressive females if they perceive the guy is interested. Women will pick up on men who are genuinely not interested. And depending on their testosterone level/self-esteem level, they may pursue the guy in the same manner men do women.
I think that female preferences emerged from the desire to be protected against men in violent and hostile societies. As these societies continue to advance and became safe in terms of personal freedoms for women, women no longer feel the need to settle for someone who will protect them against violent men. Instead, they are free to pursue other characteristics that have always been more attractive to them and not what society tells them.
Personal experience, my son is part me (Indian, Portuguese, British, Canadian) and part his dad (Chinese). Many use to mistake him for Hawaiian because of his American accent. He still is a quiet and reserved type but he never had problems with White girls approaching him. His issue was that he preferred Hispanic and Indian girls. His fiancee is Indonesian. Of my 3 daughters, 2 prefer Asian who are of Chinese/Korean/Japanese ethnicity, particularly for their reserved and effeminate (as in overly refined – think Hugh Grant) disposition not found in the Indians they met. My other daughter prefers Indian, Hispanic and ME type guys although she says they have everything going for them – looks, intelligence – and it’s intimidating. It’ll be interesting to see what my family will look like when they’ve all married and settle down. I did notice when I lived in NY that there were quite a lot of Asian male/White female couples.
@GiGi….please explain the part of YOU that your son takes after, namely BRITISH and CANADIAN. Is that Black British and Black Canadian? Did you have a DNA test done to determine who you say you are? I bet you dollars to donuts that a DNA test on your part will determine that you have in you the one race that you hate so much….BLACK!!! For someone who claim to be intelligent you must know that British and Canadian are not races and most likely you’re not “pure” any of those races you named.
De woman thinks she smarter than everybody else. She got one friend who also thinks like her. They make a good pair. This nasty woman needs to understand that black is beautiful. And that no race is superior to the other races. Anyone who shares this bigoted , narrow minded view is a moron.