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BRIDE SHORTAGE IN CHINA
1. BRIDE SHORTAGE IN CHINA
2. Consequences of the Bride Shortage in China
3. Bride Shortage and the Abduction of Women in China
4. Efforts to Combat the Bride Shortage in China
5. Adoptions and Girl Trafficking in China
BRIDE SHORTAGE IN CHINA
The high number of male births has also resulted in a shortage of brides. It is
estimated that in 2020 there will be 24 million more men of marriageable age than
women of the same age one million Chinese men will reach marriageable age every
year and be unable to find a wife. Studies indicate that one in ten to one in six men —a
number equivalent to the entire population of Canada—will never get married and that
unmarried men between 20 and 44 already outnumber their female counterparts 2 to 1.
Some have described the problem as a ticking “bachelor bomb.” Studies indicate that
the older a man gets the less likely he is to get married. For Chinese in their thirties the
number of single men to single women is nearly 10 to 1.
Bachelors unable to find marriage partners in China are called “bare branches.” The
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences described the issue as the most serious
demographic challenge for China. Senior Communist officials have described the
problem as a potential cause of crime and social unrest and instability.
Men who have no wife and no offspring are called “bare branches.” A computer
salesman told Time, “Every girl I meet has already had several marriage offers.”
Already "bachelor villages," inhabited primarily by men, are scattered in some of
China's poorer regions, particularly in northern Shaanxi province, and in Ningxi and
Gaungxi provinces.
Good Websites and Sources: Wikipedia article Wikipedia ; Family Planning in
Chinachina.org.cn ; New England Journal of Medicine article nejm.org ; One Child policy
articlesharker.org Too Many Boys and Military Aggression opinionjournal.com ; Christian
Science Monitor csmonitor.com ; Links in this Website: POPULATION IN
CHINAFactsanddetails.com/China ; ONE-CHILD POLICY IN
CHINA Factsanddetails.com/China ; BIRTH CONTROL IN
CHINA Factsanddetails.com/China ; PREFERENCE FOR BOYSFactsanddetails.com/China
Consequences of the Bride Shortage in China
Demographers say the bride shortage might lead to more prostitution, an increase in
bride sales, bigamy, forced marriages, and mass migrations of men across China's
borders in search of women. A reports in Science magazine warned of an "army of
bachelors" that could cause "social perils and all sorts of factors of instability.'
Studies by political scientists Andrea M. Den Boer and Valerie Hudson found that
single young men are more likely to commit violence than married ones. Even criminals
often give up crime after they get married and settle down. This pattern is consistent

2. with the high crime rates found in Chinese cities that have particularly high male-to-
female sex ratios.
Many of the migrant workers in Chinese cities are unmarried men. Those that can’t
find work often congregate in groups—often at train and bus stations. Some have
formed gangs and been hired as thugs.
Another consequence of the bride shortage is the high number of men with hangdog
expressions hanging out in shopping districts in Beijing and other cities, where they
hope to catch the eye of young women walking the streets. One single man told the
New York Times, "This whole generation of Chinese men who will become monks. And
then the women will feel sorry for us."
Even the government is beginning to admit there is a problem. In 2007, China’s State
Population and Family Commission said, that “the increasingly difficulties men face
finding wives may lead to social instability” and suggested relaxing the one-child policy
to boost the number of women.
Bride Shortage and the Abduction of Women in China
Stanford University's Marcus Feldman told Newsweek, "With a free-market economies
developing at the same time the number of available bride decreases, you will find
women increasingly becoming commodities to be bought and sold." Already large
numbers of brides are being smuggled into China from Vietnam and are also making
their way in from Russia and Central Asia. Some girls and young women from North
Korea, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam have been kidnaped and taken to China and sold as
brides.
There are high demands for brides in Hebei, Guizhou and Guangdong, where there are
shortages of women. In some bachelor villages the men say they are so poor that no
one will marry them. Some of them have tricked women into marrying them by
claiming they are richer than they really are
Efforts to Combat the Bride Shortage in China
To combat the bride shortage some have suggested rising the marriage age of men
(now 22) and lowering it for women (now 20). Some have also suggested bringing in
women from other countries and allowing women to marry two men.
Others have suggested that the Chinese government might lure men from the cities
with big public work projects like dams or even expand the military to accommodate
them. In the past some men joined the army and some became monks. This took off
some of the pressure to find women for all the available men.
In some places men are marrying their first cousins and even their sisters through
deals made with relatives because that is only way they can find a wife. The practice is
so common that some communities are referred to as “incest villages.”
Some have suggested the problem will continue until China creates a real social safety
net to reduce the demand for boys.
See Marriage and Dating

3. Adoptions and Girl Trafficking in China
The shortage of women has created a black market for baby girls and abducted
women. The trafficking of girls has become a serious problem.
Women Trafficking, See Women
Child Kidnaping, See Children
Adoptions and Girls, See Children
Image Sources: Nolls website, Beifan.com
Text Sources: CNTO, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Times of
London, National Geographic, The New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, Reuters, AP, Lonely
Planet Guides, Compton’s Encyclopedia and various books and other publications.
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© 2009 Jeffrey Hays
Last updated April 2010
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