boys - square # 59

boys, originally uploaded by china.sixty4.

Two young boys in a narrow "nong tang" (alley) in the east of the city. Government statistics show that 117 boys are born for every 100 girls in China, well above the average for industrialized countries of between 104 and 107 boys for every 100 girls. Unless China gets over it�s tradition of wanting male children (to continue the family name, work on the farm and support the family when the parents reach retirement age) over female children the crisis will escalate beyond anyones imagination. As a teacher I see firsthand the consequences of the ill fated "one child policy".(Which of course was put in place as a direct solution to Mao's policy of increasing the population by encouraging families to have many children) The "kids" (around twenty years of age) are socially inept, withdrawn and to put it kindly 'difficult'. The crisis of there being not enough girls for the young men to socialize with and eventually marry will of course led to many problems, sexually transmitted diseases, aggressive behavior (which is already being displayed by many of the students that I teach) are amongst the many that China will need to deal with in the coming years
photo: mhobbs