China’s Interesting New Problem

  The One Child policy was instituted in 1980 in response to the government's fear that China was going to be overpopulated in the future. However, there was an unforeseen consequence that stemmed from this law: a disproportionately high number of men in comparison to women in China. Today, there are roughly 20-40 million more men than women in China. 

This then brings us to China's peculiar issue: not enough marriage. For generations, the country had a tradition of men having to give a gift of money to the bride’s family in exchange for marriage. However, due to the large number of grooms in comparison to brides after the One Child policy, the amount of money expected to be paid has gone up tremendously. In some cases, women are expecting 20,000 dollars in exchange for marriage, and these figures are only going up. Many poorer men from rural China cannot afford these prices and therefore are not as likely to get married. This is a major issue for China, as a lack of marriages inherently means a lack of children, which could cause the nation’s already declining population to drop even faster. 

As a result, the Chinese government has stepped in to try and solve this issue. They have capped the amount of money women can ask for in some areas and are even advocating for getting rid of the age-old tradition altogether. If something isn’t done soon, China’s population might drop down to alarming amounts. 

Source:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/26/world/asia/china-crackdown-bride-prices.html