China's one-child policy will have a far-reaching impact on its society for years to come
IN PI VILLAGE, on the outskirts of Beijing, a man in his late 50s who gives his name as Ren is mixing cement for a new apartment building. As he shovels, he gives an account of bride-price inflation. When he married, his parents gave his wife 800 yuan, which seemed like a lot. Twelve years ago one of Mr Ren’s sons married. His bride got 8,000 yuan. Recently another son married, and Mr Ren had to stump up 100,000 yuan . He is likely to be mixing cement well into his 60s.
In the province of Shandong, in eastern China, the child sex ratio skewed early and drastically. It was highly unbalanced by 1990, and by 2010 had reached 123:100. Moreover, not all Shandong girls hang around awaiting marriage proposals from local boys. The province lies between Beijing and Shanghai, so it is easy for the province’s young women—said to be unusually tall and beautiful—to migrate to the great metropolises in search of work and boyfriends.
China’s growing sex imbalance is driving boys’ parents to desperate lengths. Some add another storey to their houses, not because they need the space but because a woman might be impressed. They give money to their sons to buy gold jewellery and pay for extravagant wedding photo shoots. They start saving early, then go into debt. China has a sky-high household saving rate: couples squirrel away 38% of disposable income, compared with 10% in notoriously frugal Germany.
But if rural China were heading for social Armageddon, there ought to be some sign of it already. There is not. The inhabitants of Zhongdenglou tell stories about brides being imported from other countries, especially Vietnam—but these stories turn out to come from the news media. They seem to view single men with pity and scorn rather than alarm—“people will laugh,” says Mr Qiang. Understandably, many unmarried men disappear, migrating to jobs in the cities in order to build up their savings.
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