By 2020, China is expected to have 24 million more men than women, leaving the countryside filled with aging bachelors, the consequence of a gender imbalance caused by sex-selective abortions.
China: Visiting a "Bachelor Village"
Published October 24, 2011
China’s deeply skewed sex ratio is expected to lead to a population of lifelong bachelors as large as the population of Texas by 2020. With fewer chances at parenthood under the one-child policy and the ancient preference for boys, the introduction of ultrasound technology has led families to selectively abort their girls. In China, 120 boys are born for every 100 girls. In some regions, the imbalance is as stark as 150 to 100. Some of these small rural hamlets have been nicknamed “bachelor villages” for their populations of single men.
The high cost of China's economic miracle: A generation of children left behind when parents work in factories hundreds of miles from home.
Breakneck growth has created China's economic miracle. But will the destruction of families prove to be too high a cost?
Grantee
Sushma Subramanian is a freelance health and science journalist based in New York. Her articles have appeared in New York magazine, The New York Times, Scientific American...
Grantee
Deborah Jian Lee is a freelance journalist and independent radio producer based in New York City. Her articles have been published by Marie Claire, The Washington Post, Reuters...
