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China’s ‘Leftover’ Women
New York Times ^ | October 11, 2012 | LETA HONG FINCHER

Posted on 10/13/2012 5:03:51 AM PDT by reaganaut1

...

In 2007, the Women’s Federation defined “leftover” women (sheng nu ) as unmarried women over the age of 27 and China’s Ministry of Education added the term to its official lexicon. Since then, the Women’s Federation Web site has run articles stigmatizing educated women who are still single.

Take this uplifting column from March 2011 that ran just after International Women’s Day:

Pretty girls don’t need a lot of education to marry into a rich and powerful family, but girls with an average or ugly appearance will find it difficult. These kinds of girls hope to further their education in order to increase their competitiveness. The tragedy is, they don’t realize that as women age, they are worth less and less, so by the time they get their M.A. or Ph.D., they are already old, like yellowed pearls.

After knocking some good sense into those misguided women who pursue a higher education, the column accuses educated, single women of sleeping around and having degenerate morals:

Many highly educated “leftover women” are very progressive in their thinking and enjoy going to nightclubs to search for a one-night stand, or they become the mistress of a high official or rich man. It is only when they have lost their youth and are kicked out by the man, that they decide to look for a life partner. Therefore, most “leftover women” do not deserve our sympathy.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society
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Maureen Dowd should have taken some of this advice. And according to the "rules", some pictures need to be posted.
1 posted on 10/13/2012 5:03:55 AM PDT by reaganaut1
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To: reaganaut1
Leftover Women?

in country that practices abortion and infanticide on girl babies?

preposterous. unless the Chicoms have a large bone smuggling male population.

2 posted on 10/13/2012 5:24:07 AM PDT by Vaquero (Don't pick a fight with an old guy. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you.)
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To: reaganaut1

This woman is so sad a man will not love here. She has to write a piece about women in China.


3 posted on 10/13/2012 5:26:40 AM PDT by bmwcyle (Corollary - Electing the same person over and over and expecting a different outcome is insanity)
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To: reaganaut1

In America, the leftover women are called “the NOW gang”


4 posted on 10/13/2012 5:30:02 AM PDT by bert ((K.E. N.P. N.C. +12 ..... Present failure and impending death yield irrational action))
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To: Vaquero

That’s the point of the propaganda. They’re trying to stigmatize women who have left the marriage market.


5 posted on 10/13/2012 5:50:47 AM PDT by Eepsy
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To: Eepsy

I had heard there was a shortage of women in China...


6 posted on 10/13/2012 5:57:52 AM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks (In the game of life, there are no betting limits)
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Comment #7 Removed by Moderator

To: reaganaut1
You're right, she should have but she followed feminist advice to pursue career first. So she lost out on the marriage front. Men want to marry youth and looks and women want a successful husband. To maximize that, women would have to put finding husband first and career second but that's not what girls are taught.

I think Chinese women are more aware of the risks so if they pursue careers they know it's at the expense of marriage.

8 posted on 10/13/2012 6:05:26 AM PDT by Varda
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To: Varda

These women sound like my ex wife. She left me 10 years ago thinking she could find something better. Now she’s she’s a spinster, no husband, no children....no hope. But lots of haagen daz.


9 posted on 10/13/2012 6:11:47 AM PDT by Catholic Canadian
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To: Tzar
Oh, yes. Twenty seven is soooo old.

All I have to say is I'm not too proud to eat leftovers.

10 posted on 10/13/2012 6:15:00 AM PDT by seowulf ("If you write a whole line of zeroes, it's still---nothing"...Kira Alexandrovna Argounova)
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To: reaganaut1

The one child policy has caused a demographic nightmare for the Chinese: they don’t have enough people to accomodate necessary future growth in the economy. Necessary to avoid mass insurrection. India will probably outgrow China because the trends are more favorable.


11 posted on 10/13/2012 6:17:15 AM PDT by SC_Pete
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To: reaganaut1

Come to America, where a fat, dumb and fugly girl can still be Secretary of State.


12 posted on 10/13/2012 6:18:16 AM PDT by patriotsblood
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To: Catholic Canadian
My neighbor had a wife like that. She had the gall to think he'd take her back if her new honey didn’t work out. She of course is now old and alone except she did have kids. That is a good consolation for someone as dim witted as that.
13 posted on 10/13/2012 6:21:29 AM PDT by Varda
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To: reaganaut1
I met several very attractive Chinese women in their late 20's and early 30's who were considered "unattractive" by Chinese standards... weighing barely over 115, or having slightly dark skin, under 5'2 or over 5'7, or educated, or having an earning potential higher than most men, etc... who would tell me that I should pursue a younger (early 20's) Chinese girl, because I was too successful to "settle" for them, no matter how many times I assured them that by American standards, they were wonderful!

(Of course, they may have just been finding polite ways to reject my initial interest, but it didn't seem like it.)

14 posted on 10/13/2012 6:24:19 AM PDT by Teacher317 ('Tis time to fear when tyrants seem to kiss.)
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To: reaganaut1

No surprise they’re seeing the same problems that the West has. Until ‘liberation’, women didn’t really have a choice - they had to get married. Now they can pursue a career and not get married, or get married and not have kids. Give women the option of not bearing the next generation, some will take it. It’s a simply a choice.

But when too many take it, then the population nose-dives, as we’re seeing in virtually all of the West. Yes, there are still kids, but far, far, fewer, and not nearly enough to keep up with the needed replacement rate. Immigration (both kinds) is the only thing keeping this country from the same death spiral, and that is not healthy in the long run either.


15 posted on 10/13/2012 6:34:51 AM PDT by BobL (You can live each day only once. You can waste a few, but don't waste too many.)
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To: Vaquero

They must have a LOT of fags, huh?


16 posted on 10/13/2012 6:35:39 AM PDT by Slump Tester (What if I'm pregnant Teddy? Errr-ahh -Calm down Mary Jo, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it)
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To: Teacher317

Be careful, very careful. You are stepping into a clash of cultures.


17 posted on 10/13/2012 6:56:18 AM PDT by super7man
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To: reaganaut1

Seems to me there are far more ‘left over’ men in China, there being a serious sex imbalance in the population.

Stygmatizing these women is a way to try to paper over that dire problem is my guess.


18 posted on 10/13/2012 6:58:27 AM PDT by Lorianne (fedgov, taxporkmoney)
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To: super7man
Thanks for the advice. I left China over 2 years ago, though. I'm safely back in the shallow end of the American dating pool these days. (Definitely needs more chlorine.)

:^/

19 posted on 10/13/2012 7:01:28 AM PDT by Teacher317 ('Tis time to fear when tyrants seem to kiss.)
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To: Vaquero

Don’t they call them cougars here in the States?


20 posted on 10/13/2012 7:19:23 AM PDT by Hotlanta Mike (Resurrect the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC)...before there is no America!)
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