For Chinese Women, Marriage Depends On Right 'Bride Price'

[lumberjack_jeff]

Women hold up half the sky, China's Chairman Mao famously said. But in China, the one-child policy and the traditional preference for boys mean that 117 boys are born for every 100 baby girls. By one estimate, this means there could be 24 million Chinese men unable to find wives by the end of the decade.

As China's economy booms, the marriage market has become just that: a market, with new demands by women for apartments and cars.

http://www.npr.org/2013/04/23/176326713/for-chinese-women-marriage-depends-on-right-bride-price

Because this country has the opposite gender-selection bias to the one existing in China, the US population has 97 women for every 100 men.

To what extent does the opposite demographic trend explain a cultural rejection of those attitudes here?

[Major Nikon]

1. Last October I spent 10 days touring China

I spoke to the tour guide extensively about this issue. The one child policy is not as simple as it may seem. It doesn't apply to some, and if you are rich you can just pay the tax and have as many kids as you want.

He said that in the cities, female children are actually preferred because if you have a daughter you have no worries. If you have a son you must start saving money as soon as they are born. Grandparents start saving too. Without an apt and a car, your son can't get married.