They are called China’s “bare branches” – men who cannot find women to marry and have children. They are called “bare branches” — trees without leaves, because for them love, marriage and fatherhood is “just a dream.”
There are many millions of men in China who are the victims of what has been called “a cruel twist of demographics.” A generation of China’s one child to a couple policies, combined with a cultural preference for male children, has resulted in a society where there are some 120 young men for every 100 young women.
Although it is illegal, female pregnancies are routinely aborted. Sex selection and abortion have so dramatically upset the ratio of men to women that many of these bachelors will never find wives and will die unmarried and childless. By some accounting, there are some 40 million reluctant bachelors.
The shortage of women means that women can become “extra choosy” in the selection of spouses, “demanding big payouts and apartments in China’s expensive cities.” In China, young women, realizing they have the advantage, now say, “I’d rather be crying in a BMW, than laughing on a bicycle.”
This problem works a trauma in China because in the Confucian society, respect for parents is paramount and all parents want is grandchildren.
And some desperate mothers, according to reports, canvass parks and neighborhoods for single women –looking for spouses for their sons so they are not “bare branches.”
