According to its own National Health and Family Planning Commission, China’s gender imbalance among newborns is “the most serious and prolonged” in the world. Decades of enforcing a one-child policy along with a traditional preference for boys has resulted in a gender ratio of 118 boys for every 100 girls.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the result is 30 million single Chinese men who cannot find a wife, something which may destabilize society as the risks of anti-social and violent behavior increase.
But hey, maybe we’re looking at this the wrong way. Xie Zuoshi, a professor with the School of Economics and International Trade at Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics, said the problem can be solved with economic theories.
Xie suggests that the problem of 30 million to 40 million unmarried men is a problem of high-income versus low income, and can be solved by allowing low-income earning men to share a wife.
Here’s how Xie (seen above) explained his suggestion on his blog:
Males with high-incomes will get married easier because they can afford a wife. For low-income earners, one solution is to allow polyandry. In fact, in some rural areas in China, there are situations in which brothers of a family share one wife and they live happily together.
Xie considers the primal sex drive to be the most pressing issues of these 30 million unmarried men, and not their need to fall in love with their soul mate nor the need to raise a family to fulfill their filial devotion as well as to ensure someone will look after them in their old age. Xie says fulfilling the sexual needs of these men is of primary importance, no matter how it’s done:
The problem of sex must be addressed. And if can’t be taken care of legally, then it must be done illegally. If it can’t be solved under the light of day, then it must be solved in the dark of night.
Xie doesn’t see another way out of this mess:
Of course, we don’t have to allow polygomous marriages nor extra-marital sexual behavior, but then we must accept having an unstable society. Thirty million single men don’t necessarily have to bring about serious social problems, but it will most definitely bring sexual freedom. And if it does indeed bring about serious problems, well, then it will be the fault of the law and people’s perceptions.
These days, women expect a man to have a house and car before getting married. If they don’t, they look for wives in rural areas instead. If that doesn’t turn up any potential mates, some men are known to look to other countries, like Vietnam, even if they don’t speak the same language.
Xie said that if legalized, polyandry would be a perfect solution to solve the 30 million single men’s sexual needs, which he believed could be the most important factor in igniting social unrest.
But that’s not all. To solve the problem of China’s 30 unmarried men, Xie believes that women from outside China, with Africa and Southeast Asia as named examples, will be “more attracted to marry Chinese men… with better economic development.” As well, Xie says legalizing gay marriage will help relieve the problem to some degree as well.
However, Xie doesn’t have answers on how these solutions can be accepted by China’s notoriously traditional society.
Abolished in modern times, China did have a tradition of polygomous marriages, but they usually involved a man taking more than one wife. This was usually an indicator of the man’s wealth, and is a tradition that carries on today by the practice of a taking on more than one mistress, who traditionally must have their financial needs taken care of, such as being provided with a house.
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https://thenanfang.com/economic-prof-low-income-chinese-men-share-wives-overcome-gender-gap/
