Thursday, February 17, 2011

Chinese leftovers caught between social pressure and despair

In traditional China, being single at 20 or 25 years was almost a rarity, but in the changing society of China are increasingly those who do not marry at early ages, a social group that the Chinese nicknamed as "sheng" (the "surplus") and is subjected to strong psychological pressure. Loneliness, unhappiness and anxiety are some of the problems of these "surplus" to get couples who are forced to attend "speed dating", they are supporting their own parents who are looking for couples or pretend to have a boyfriend to her parents .

Only 25% claim to be happy. Are cases like Yongxue Tang, a young woman from Chengdu (southwest China) this month hit the streets waving a sign that offered 10,000 yuan (1,500 dollars) who agreed to be presented to her parents as her boyfriend. Tang asked that the applicant had 26 to 30 years, 1.75 meters high and it was less intuitive to meet contingencies which may arise with your family.

Another 27-year old placed an advertisement on the Internet also demanding a "fake boyfriend" and noted that it was not necessary to accompany the family home, but "just calling a few times on the phone while I am with them," offering 600 yuan (88 dollars) for two calls a day for ten days.

The desperation of the young is so great that it has even been to provide the sale of items with "boyfriend-inclusive, if an online auction iPad Christmas for 6,000 yuan (904 dollars) attached to a lover, to to help the people who passed these festivities alone. Young people also have to deal with events that many of their parents manage to find a partner.

One of the famous events that are planned in major trade fairs where parents exchange information about their unmarried children, met last week about 50,000 in the International Sculpture Park in Beijing. For young and Anmihua, a boy of 21 years, these measures are the result of family pressure and a mother who "maintain a culture identical to that of 2,000 years ago, when the children were required to marry couples and fast to ensure continuity of his generation.

" This time you join a society in which China is particularly difficult to find a partner, due to work pressures and economic and gender imbalance caused by the policy of "only child." A poll released last week by the China Medical Association reported that more than 160,000 young people between 27 and 35, half work from 8 to 10 hours, while 20% said they usually work between 10 and 12 hours per day, leaving no time to look for love.

But also, the "surplus" males are unable to mate because of low wages do not allow them to meet the requirements of Chinese women who, according to a study by the Association of Marriage and Family Research, considered only those who have a house, stable income and savings. It also affects the above-mentioned gender imbalance in China, where in 2005 119 boys born for every 100 women in a country where many families, especially in the field, prefer a boy to a girl, sometimes resorting to selective abortions or neglect daughters.

In addition, the Achaeans are able to marry but surpassing the ideal age for fertilization (between 25 and 30) are facing health problems. The phenomenon of "surplus" is for the second economy market today, one of the main problems affecting their society whose rate of desperate and depressed young members is increasing.

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