

It's Cold Cash, Not Cold Feet, Motivating Runaway Brides in China - tokenadult
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124415971813687173.html

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startingup
Several southern Indian states have achieved even more impressive population
control (below replacement level fertility in a part of India that accounts
for about 30% of the population) without _any_ coercion at all. Even in
northern states, fertility is dropping at a pace that has surprised
demographers. I bet fertility would have dropped in China the same way
voluntarily.

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kqr2
[http://www63.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=population+of+india+v...](http://www63.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=population+of+india+versus+population+of+china)

It still looks like India is on track to surpass China's population though.

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biohacker42
_As in other parts of the country, village customs dictate the groom's family
pay the bride's family a set amount -- known as cai li -_

I know China is a big and diverse country. Perhaps that is why I've heard of
the Chinese custom for the bride's family to pay huge sums to the groom's
family. And the proverb: "Raising a girl is like watering some else's garden."

Is this a case of different regions with different customs?

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emmett
Generally you'd pay a bride price rather than a dowry in China
(<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_marriage#Six_Etiquette>). Sayings like
the one you quoted are not due to paying money to the groom's family, but
rather because the girl becomes part of the groom's family.

There are probably a regions where the reverse is true, and dowries are
common, because China is a very large and diverse place. Maybe near Mongolia?
Certainly not in the major cities though.

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gaius
You could tell something was wrong straight away from the body language in
that photo.

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blurry
_Thanks to its 30-year-old population-planning policy and customary preference
for boys, China has one of the largest male-to-female ratios in the world._

That makes no sense whatsoever. The population-planning policy aimed at
reducing total population, not the number of girls. The male-to-female ratio
is skewed because of female infanticide, not "customary preference for boys".

The sad truth is, millions of chinese families killed their newborn girls in
order to ensure that their one alloted child would be male because they
believed in male superiority. They are now confronted with a self-perpetuated
demographic disaster, and the western journalists, as usual, white-wash it in
culturally relativistic terms.

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timothychung
I am curious why this post is getting votes. Any reason?

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kqr2
To me, it's an interesting unintended consequence of China's birth control
policy.

Perhaps the government solved the overpopulation problem, but they also
created an imbalance between men and women which may lead to social unrest.

Also, as China's population becomes older and retires, they will have a large
imbalance in productive workforce.

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oldgregg
I wonder what would be a good way to eliminate few million restless males ages
18-35? Let's just say it probably involves a land war with the west.

Hopefully our MTV will subvert their plans.

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gaius
This should be obvious. Look what happens in a culture where the
wealthy/powerful are allowed 4 wives, on top of there already being a shortage
of females.

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udekaf
good point, I am always curious about how the Musilm solve the problem of
male/female inbalance given the fact that one man can marry 4 wives.

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barry-cotter
In the late Ottoman Empire ~3% of men had more than one wife. Keep in mind
that the wife's legal position was better than in most of Europe too. In
cultures where the husband is expected to support wives and progeny it gets
expensive fast. OTOH there are a lot of places poorer than e.g. Saudi Arabia.
In places where the father is further along the continuum to useless sperm
donor, like W. Africa promiscuity and the prevalence of multiple concurrent
sexual selationships makes it very different.

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dmix
Could this level of unbalance have an effect on our genes? I've read of
species that fluctuate, every 5-10 years, the genetics odds of male/female
based on the gender ratios of the population.

It seems possible it could happen to humans if this got out of hand in the
future.

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kqr2
According to this article:

<http://www.psy.fsu.edu/~baumeistertice/goodaboutmen.htm>

Genetic research reveals that:

 _Today’s human population is descended from twice as many women as men._

 _To get that kind of difference, you had to have something like, throughout
the entire history of the human race, maybe 80% of women but only 40% of men
reproduced._

In other words, throughout most of history, most men did not have offspring.
Although 32 million surplus males is a lot, it probably will not have a
profound effect on the gene pool.

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dmix
That is a great article, answered my question.

