China View: The “Leftover” Women
“The Marriage Market in Shanghai” (Courtesy of Shanghai Jiao Tong University Student)
That of China is a millenarian culture full of complex traditional values often struggling to keep up with social progress. Like in many industrialized societies, more and more young Chinese have the opportunity to go to university, advancing their career prospects while only being able to establish a stable and independent life in their late 20s or early 30s. According to statistics, the percentage of Chinese graduates obtaining an undergraduate degree has risen exponentially since 2008, reaching a peak of 7.5 million graduate students in 2018. Spending academic years abroad, with destinations often being the U.S., Australia, the U.K., and Europe has become a popular trend among young Chinese seeking international experience to mature their knowledge of foreign languages.
While these achievements are commonly admired in China, proceeding university studies beyond the bachelor’s degree may have a moral cost. A saying in China states “There are men, women, and female Ph.D. holders." This is a borderline demeaning comment related to women’s aspirations for higher education; assuming that advanced degrees may set standards that are too intimidating for men and that may exclude every possibility to find a partner. If unmarried for too long, these women will be labeled “leftover” women. While the same label can apply to men, with no surprise, there is no common saying that degrades their persona due to high educational attainment.
With the introduction of consumerism in society, post-materialistic values keep intensifying in the lives of youth. This means that the basic values that concerned the previous generation, mainly the need for food, housing, and clothing, are no longer hardships that young adults have to overcome nowadays. It is renowned that the rule of Mao Zedong dedicated much of his effort to push China towards industrialization, providing these basic needs for a part of the population that now holds the roles of parents or grandparents, which often have the funds to support their children. But a growing economy also implies a more expensive environment to live in, and with increasing living costs in the cities, young adults have no choice but to go to university and perform their best to be able to afford a comfortable life. Higher education, just like in other developed economies, is not only a luxury but also an obligation. Chinese women, however, seem to have too many obligations that contradict each other.
Unmarried women at 27 can already be considered “sheng nu” (剩女) or “leftover women”, a term that puts incredible pressure on all young educated women that have the desire to shape their career, but also feel the urge to satisfy the traditional views of their elders on marriage and on how the family structure should look like. The problem is that, unfortunately, the expectations Chinese families have on their young children might be out of date and no longer applicable to modern society. According to the South China Morning Post, “China’s sixth national census in 2010 showed that between 1990 and 2010, the number of unmarried women aged 25 and above increased from about 2.8 million to more than 14.5 million.” It is clear then that there is an underlying issue on how women with high educational attainment are portrayed by society and the media.
According to a book by Leta Hong Fincher “Leftover Women: The Resurgence of Gender Inequality in China,” this might be an ideal imposed by the Chinese Government after 2007, due to the falling birth rates and the concern that high-quality women in the workforce would compete in the global market rather than committing to matrimony and motherhood. Fincher has told Vogue the government believes that marrying off educated women from urban cities would go “hand-in-hand with the population quality” because they would bring to the world a new generation of highly skilled individuals. This, however, is not the case for women living in rural areas, because considered less privileged within Chinese society.
Above, an advertisement by Japanese cosmetic brand SK-II, which sensibilized the issue of the “leftover” women and made it public for the first time. This documentary-style advert helped raise awareness on the pressures women in China are being put through by their own families, judging them superficially and deciding on their matchmaking chances in terms of their beauty, often compared to the unrealistic standards of models and actresses in television. Certainly, not all families act similarly, and one must not generalize or believe this happens in every corner of the country, but it is important to mention that this is a conversation that must be addressed by future generations to their children.
Chinese culture is deeply rooted in society, but it is true that society changes, and there shouldn’t be anything wrong for values to also mutate over time, just like language does. A primary issue that concerns the “leftover” women, is that the marriage market appears to still be considered an important deal in China. As shown from the figure below, kindly selected and authorized by a student at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, the marriage market is organized weekly in parks of small and big cities. Often, it is the parents or other acquaintances that hang different signs on top of umbrellas. These paper sheets are proper ads providing information on the person’s height, age, social status, job conditions, properties, and so on. Practically, the goal is to almost “sell” a person that is unmarried, divorced, or widowed.
The first problem is that the marriage market is organized by older people, which may not understand thoroughly the needs of younger generations. The second issue is that, in Chinese culture, children often take care of the parents during their old age, and these are afraid no one will be able to take care of their children once they are old if they do not marry and have kids. Most importantly, the core concern is that this idea that women need to have children or should be in a committed relationship is not accurate. In fact, one can easily see how parents believe their children should marry for the sake of society, therefore, to solve the falling birth rates problem and stand with values that pertain to the communist ideal of how individuals must help mutually in society. As discussed by Kelly Yang in her South China Morning Post Opinion column, “what China needs is not more matchmaking parks, but real, sustainable solutions for its growing elderly population, solutions independent of family and children and without social stigma.”
