Male:female ratio in China

[LeafAndSunshine]

China should really legalise the sex industry and promote opennese in

the gay community.

Looking at these issues logically, it doesn't matter whether it's legalised or not,

there is a rather large sex industry in China, and as long as it remains illegal,

it will attact crime, create sources of sexually transmitted diseases and many

other social problems, and the government will not get receive the tax that

the sex industry can generate. The same can be said about the gay community.

[gougou]

it will attact crime, create sources of sexually transmitted diseases and many

other social problems

Sadly, that isn't going to change after legalisation.

[gougou]

Loosely relevant: the UNFPA's report "State of World Population 2005", this year focusing largely on inequalities between the genders. Quite a depressing read...

[Lu]

It might help solving such problems. If prostitution is legal, you can, for example, have a prostiutes' meeting in which you tell them about condoms and the like, and the women could come to the meeting without needing to fear for being arrested. Or if a woman was maltreated by a costumer or pimp, she could go to the police.

[Toto]

Toto

" many chinese men will look to marry a chinese girl from HK."

woah! It's true I know a lot of HK girls who are sweet and single but I can also say that their standards are tremendously high! (And not to be nasty about HKers, they are a little bit snobbish).

I actually thought it was more the other way round these days: HK guys keeping mainlander mistresses in Shenzhen/Zhuhai !

Well..it is true for the early 80s, when HK was going through this capitalistic boom. Hence a lot of women want a career first before settling down. Fast forward 5-10 years, you will see that a lot of women in their 30s who have a great career, but not the stability of a relationship to go with it. Hence a lot of women who have 'made it' will marry a guy from China who also have the 'background and education', even though by HK's standard, he may not be 'all that', but for China's standard, he's probably better off than 50% of the population, say. It is quite a weird phenomenon... but lots of documentaries are made about this kind of social changes. Sometimes these are broadcasted on the Chinese channels here in the UK.

Yes, a lot of men used to have second wives in Shenzhen/Zhuhai, and many soaps/tv programmes in HK reflect this kind of realistic lifestyle, because the man that married the career woman may not have thought about what he would want in a woman. I'm not being funny, but... how many males in HK would've approached or read such self-help books like 'Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus' ?? To think laterally and adapt a lifestyle which fits him and his partner ? At the end of the day, it boils down to whether 'we' (as chinese) can get over the cultural aspect instilled in us, like women must be the child-bearer and the man must be the sole (or main) breadwinner.

Confuscian values Vs Modern (Western) lifestyle

[geraldc]

I don't really see the Chinese government deciding that legalising the sex industry is the way forward. The death penalty still exists for pimping. Communists always seemed to be quite forward thinking regarding female emancipation, what with females holding up half of heaven etc.

Most of us won't see any of the effects of the gender imbalance as none of us live in rural areas. Lots of the young women from rural areas flock to the cities for factory work etc, e.g. in Shenzhen there are factories that have almost entirely female workforces all housed in dormitories etc. It's the rural areas that will feature the greatest shortage of females.

China does seem to have quite a few problems stacking up for itself, gender imbalance, spoilt kids and the little emperor syndrome, the sole child/grandchild becoming responsible for the living costs of retired relatives etc. However at least now that China has tackled population growth, it should now have the money to tackle these forthcoming problems. India hasn't taken steps to control it's population, and if a population grows faster than it's economy, then it's effectively becoming poorer over time.

On the plus side the gender imbalance should only last for around 30 years, and after that things should equalise again. Who knows maybe they should bring back eunuchs...

Toto? Not the Toto is it?

[Toto]

Going by a point someone else made earlier. I don't think that the increase of male homosexuality would be induced socially by lack of females in its environment. I'd always thought that homosexuality is a nature, rather than a nurtured phenomenon ?

China does seem to have quite a few problems stacking up for itself, gender imbalance, spoilt kids and the little emperor syndrome, the sole child/grandchild becoming responsible for the living costs of retired relatives etc

Well, maybe it means a change in the culture too ? None of the favouritism on the male child being more important because he carries on the family's name.

Yes, it is THE Toto...I like this board already. Such balanced views.

[LeafAndSunshine]

Sadly, that isn't going to change after legalisation.

Not totally, but after legalisation of the sex industry, the government can further

regulate the industry by making it complusory for sex workers to go through

periodical medical checks for STD, and attend classes about safe sex. I

believe this would go a long way in reducing the spread of STD.

[LeafAndSunshine]

I don't really see the Chinese government deciding that legalising the sex industry is the way forward. The death penalty still exists for pimping. Communists always seemed to be quite forward thinking regarding female emancipation, what with females holding up half of heaven etc.

Sure, that's one more reason why the sex industry should be legalised. I don't

think it's forward thinking about female emancipation by making it illegal to sell

sex for a living because there are both men and women working in the sex

industry -- yes, there are man whores, so there is no inequality issues in

the legalisation of the sex industry.

[Ian_Lee]

In the man-scarce Hong Kong, up to one out of five bouquets sent on Valentine's Day are actually sent by the lonely office ladies to themselves:

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/asiapacific/article_1097431.php/Women_send_themselves_Valentine_bouquets_in_man-scarce_Hong_Kong

[HashiriKata]

In the man-scarce Hong Kong, up to one out of five bouquets sent on Valentine's Day are actually sent by the lonely office ladies to themselves

I've planned a HongKong visit in June and I wonder if this is of any good to anyone (? )