Scarcity Calling The Shots
Those things that do not present in abundance but which hold great attraction are valued to a greater degree because of their rarity. Diamonds - which are crystalline carbon, where atoms have bonded tightly to produce under great pressure over time a hard substance that refracts light and when expertly cut reveals great beauty - represent a rare substance held in costly high esteem.Females, in China, as a result of one-child policies of the state, and the aborting of female foetuses, and infanticide of girl babies, are like diamonds; rare and precious when they come of nubile age. Young Chinese men who, because of the lop-sided imbalance resulting from Communist China's interference with human biology through its legalized, institutionalized one-child policy, are over-represented in the population.
The relative paucity of young, marriageable Chinese women has created a situation where those young Chinese women are able to pick and choose among their anxious suitors. And anxious parents of those anxious suitors do their best to try to make their eligible young sons attractive as marriage prospects to young women who know their value and plan to make the most of it.
Their favour doesn't come cheaply. Young, marriageable Chinese women now have aspirations to wealth. And there is wealth now within Chinese society as a result of the blend of capitalism and Communism which has resulted in a large and growing upper middle class. Parents who have the wherewithal buy houses for their sons to attract a wife.
If a marriageable young man is to be considered truly eligible to draw the approving attention of a young woman he will have a good salary, own a home and a car. Which leaves quite a large demographic of hopeful males without the attraction of ownership of a home and a car, and with a salary in the doldrums of disinterest, without the prospect of a mate-for-life.
Moreover, the divorce rate in China has grown exponentially; in the major cities a third of all marriages end in divorce. These are cultural changes; young women looking for rich husbands, and a soaring divorce rate - that has raised alarm in official circles. The family has always been a fundamental unit of stability within Chinese tradition.
The growing materialism manifested by young women aspiring to live richly-endowed lives that will buy them whatever they want has resulted in love placing a distant second to wealth. A marriage without a house in the background is characterized in the vernacular as a "naked marriage", with dim prospects for the future.
In a country where the average salary is $10,000 annually, China's property rates in Shanghai have risen to $7,000 per square metre. "Most pretty girls now try to trade on their beauty. It is an unhealthy trend and the government is now trying to restrict it." (Beijing-based consultant)
Labels: China, Heritage, Human Relations, Social-Cultural Deviations
posted by Pieface @ Monday, August 22, 2011
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