Weblog with daily updates of the news on a frugal, fair and beautiful China, from the perspective of internet entrepreneur, new media advisor and president of the China Speakers Bureau Fons Tuinstra
Author Zhang Lijia talks about the importance of learning English, for herself and for the country, as anti-Western attitudes in China make it today less important for students to dive into learning English and other languages, she tells at the weblog of the China Institute.
China’s authorities first raised the number of allowed children from two to three per family, and might now even cancel all restrictions. Journalist Zhang Lijia, author of Lotus: A Novel(January 2017) on prostitution in China, looks at the troubled relationship between feminism and motherhood in her mother country, in an interview with the Italian publication Il Manifesto.
Il Manifesto:
Let’s start with the news: what has been the reaction of Chinese civil society to the third-child policy?
Overall, the reaction has been less than enthusiastic. The news has been met with puzzlement, cynicism, derision and even anger.
After all, this new family planning guideline doesn’t require that couples have three children, it only allows them to. So how do you explain this level of discontent?
Yes, that’s true. Married couples can have three children, but they are not required to. Nevertheless, it is not difficult to understand the discontent: young Chinese couples are in such economic and material conditions that they simply cannot think of supporting three children. Many are already struggling with one child; or can’t even afford to have one at all. Only wealthy families can afford three children, and in this situation, many are feeling frustrated. Others are finding it hard to swallow that the government limited the number of births until a few years ago, and is now encouraging having more children without offering any practical support. The prevailing sentiment is that the authorities have bypassed the views of the citizens on this issue.
It seems that today, many young Chinese people, especially young women, are less and less enthusiastic about the idea of having children. Where does this reluctance come from?
First of all, life in China today is expensive, and raising a child is expensive as well, especially when you consider the cost of education. Even though education is compulsory and free for nine years, parents, especially in large urban centers, are competing to enroll their children in additional classes and extracurricular activities, such as piano and English lessons.
Another problem is the limited availability of early childcare facilities. It is estimated that only 0.5 percent of children ages 0 to 3 are able to go to preschool. Young couples are forced to rely on their parents or hire babysitters, incurring extra costs. The trend of not having children is driven by women: mainly professionals, who live in cities and are highly educated, because they have more to lose and because they have become more assertive with the internet and contact with international developments.
Many are hesitant about having children because of sexism in the labor market. In fact, some Chinese companies are refusing to hire women of childbearing age, or firing them if they become pregnant. I’ve heard stories of women who had to pledge they won’t have children as a precondition for employment. To address this issue, in 2019 the government barred employers from asking women if they are married or have children during job interviews. Their intentions were good, but the concrete results have been insufficient, to say the least.
For women who have risen into managerial positions, there is also the concern that having children will jeopardize their careers. The fact that there is a hostile environment toward working mothers in many workplaces has deterred many women from motherhood. It should also be noted that people’s attitudes toward procreation have changed dramatically. It used to be considered part of filial duties. An ancient Chinese saying goes, “Of the three actions that betray filial piety, the worst is not having children.” Few of today’s young people, many of whom are only children focused on self-fulfillment, see having children as a duty.
There has also been a lot of talk lately about some women embracing the principles associated with “6B4T,” a movement that expresses a radical rejection of marriage and motherhood. What is it about and what needs does it express?
6B4T is a feminist movement that originated in South Korea in 2019 and which brings together women determined to exclude men from their lives, thus rejecting the roles of wives and mothers, which have their origin in patriarchy. The “6 Bs” and “4 Ts” consist of not having romantic or sexual relationships with men; not marrying or having children; not buying misogynistic products; rejecting beauty standards and the hyper-sexualization of women in the culture industry; and offering help to other single women.
Like their Korean sisters, some Chinese women have rejected marriage and motherhood. The reason is that because of their roles as wives and mothers, they are not being treated the same as men, but also that they no longer see marriage or motherhood as necessary conditions for happiness. From what I understand, some of the followers of 6B4T are LGBTQ+ persons, but not all. In some cases, I think they are just women who are disappointed or traumatized by their experiences with men. They are mostly young, urban, and educated.
China’s new three-child policy has received a lackluster reception among its population. Author Zhang Lijia offers a few tips for the government to make its policy attractive for women: offer financial incentives, significantly expand its childcare capacity, and promote women-friendly policies and equality, she writes in the South China Morning Post.
Zhang Lijia:
Why aren’t young people keen on having children these days? First, living costs – and child-rearing costs – are high. Although the state offers nine years of compulsory education, urban parents are all vying to sign up their children for extra lessons and extracurricular activities, from English to piano.
The availability of childcare services in China is another headache. Young couples often have to rely on their parents or hire child minders, which only adds to the cost.
Furthermore, many educated professional women hesitate to have children due to the prevalence of sexual discrimination in the job marketplace.
Some companies refuse to hire women of child-bearing age or sack them if they become pregnant. I have heard stories of women being required to promise not to have children as a precondition for employment.
To deal with the issue, Chinese government agencies even issued a notice in 2019, forbidding prospective employers from asking female job candidates whether they were married or have children. While well intentioned, such a move was weak, to say the least.
For the women who have worked their way up to managerial positions, there is the worry that motherhood may send them back down the career ladder. The unfriendly environment for working mothers has deterred many women from having babies…
Evidence suggests that equality is good for fertility. Look at Europe as an example. France and Scandinavia have higher birth rates than southern European countries such asItaly, Spain and Portugal, which have less gender equality and more rigid family norms, and where new mothers are expected to stay at home.
In contrast, France and the Nordic countries have a relaxed attitude to family norms. Their governments offer equal support to families that come in different forms: married couples, unwed couples, same-sex couples and single parents.
The Chinese government should allow single women to have children, should they wish, and grant equal rights to their children.
The current fertility rate in China is 1.3, while last year, Chinese women on average were willing to have 1.8 children, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. So, if China plays its cards right, there should be room for growth.
China’s internet censors have been cracking down on feminist groups because they are considered by the government to be extremist because they oppose traditional marriage. A wrong signal, says author Zhang Lijiain the South China Morning Post, and it will certainly not help the country in solving its demographic problems.
Zhang Lijia:
Is the idea of simply not wanting to have any relationship with men extremism? In most parts of the world, the answer should be “no”, but apparently not in China. In April, Douban, a Chinese social media platform favoured by liberal internet users, shut down several feminist groups that were associated with a brand of feminism known as “6B4T”. Originating in South Korea around 2019, adherents wish to exclude men from their lives and reject the institution of marriage, which they regard as the root of patriarchy. The “6B” stands for not having romantic or sexual relationships with men; not getting married or having children; not buying misogynistic products; and offering help to other single women. “4T” refers to their rejection of tight-fitting outfits, religions and idols. Douban claimed the online forums associated with these groups were erased because they “contained extremism and radical political and ideological thoughts”. In a country where women are arrested for protesting against sexual harassment in public transport, such censorship is not a surprise. Moreover, at a time when China’s population is shrinking, I can imagine the authorities don’t feel overjoyed by some women’s determination not to marry or to procreate. Are these women really radical, though?
Women are among the most active in the workforce, but political participation is lagging like nowhere else in the world. Social commentator Zhang Lijiia dives into the patriarchal culture of China and how political participation in government can be improved, for the South China Morning Post.
Zhang Lijia:
“Women shine at China’s ‘ two sessions’,” said a glowing Xinhua headline earlier this month. The article went on to note: “In the 13th National People’s Congress and the National Committee of the 13th Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, there are 742 female deputies and 440 female members respectively, marking a historic high for female representation.”
However, women still account for less than a quarter of all NPC and CPPCC members. As China inches towards greater female participation in politics, it is being outpaced by many other countries.
The Global Gender Gap Report 2020, which tracks progress towards gender equality, ranked China 106th out of 153 countries surveyed, down three places from the year before. In the latest Women’s Power Index, China was ranked 150th out of 193 UN member states in political parity.
How can this be? China has one of Asia’s highest rates of female participation in the workforce. Furthermore, the Communist Party has long trumpeted gender equality. Chairman Mao famously proclaimed: “Women hold up half the sky.”
When the party took power in 1949, Chinese women were in a miserable position, with low literacy and labour participation rates. The first NPC in 1954 was attended by 147 women representatives, or 12 per cent of all representatives; by 1975, women accounted for 22.6 per cent. Since then, however, female participation in the NPC has hovered at this level.
The roots of the problem of low female political participation lie in the depths of China’s patriarchal culture. Hostile attitudes towards women in public affairs, along with domestic burdens that are traditionally placed on women, prevent rural women from entering politics in villages, which also tend to be more conservative than cities.
China’s government tries to raise the number of newborns to offset an aging population, but the latest demographics show Chinese do not follow that lead as the country’s birthrate is dropping. People choose to make a different choice, explains social commentator Zhang Lijia in the Guardian. “And society has become more tolerant.”
The Guardian:
Zhang Lijia, a writer, journalist and social commentator, said there was a change in attitude and many women – especially urban-living and highly educated – no longer regarded marriage and parenthood as “necessary passages in life or the essential ingredients of a happy life”.
“In another word, it is about choice. Better education, higher income and more career options grant these women the freedom to choose a lifestyle they desire. They are assertive enough to resist the pressure from their parents to produce children. And the society is more tolerant than before.”
Overwork in China – called the 996 culture – is rampant, especially in the IT industry. The recent death of a Pinduoduo employee also shocked social commentator Zhang Lijia. For her, this cannot be solved by the industry or employees, but the government should step in, she writes in the South China Morning Post.
Zhang Lijia:
The Chinese government has done little to address the 996 regime, which clearly violates labour laws that state that workers should work for no more than eight hours a day and 44 hours a week on average.
The 996 culture makes inhuman demands on workers’ health and hurts their well-being, yet workers are left in a weak position, too often simply unable to resist their bosses’ unreasonable demands. The government should step in to protect workers, end the 996 regime, and stop capitalism in its coldest form from being practised in socialist China.
Labour laws must be strengthened and vague legal terms avoided. For example, a 1995 State Council revision of working hours stipulates that where companies are unable to give their employees their two days of weekend rest, flexible days off may be arranged in light of actual conditions. Some companies take this as an excuse to not give their workers the weekends off.
In many developed countries, labour unions try to protect workers’ interests. In China, unions exist but primarily in name only. Perhaps the authorities can give labour unions some space and allow them to play their role in easing the tension between employers and employees.
The loss of a young life is a tragedy. At the very least, I hope it spurs positive action.
Panic struck some commentators in China when recent official figures showed the country counted 240 single households, the largest number for any country in the world. While China and the Chinese still might have to get used to this feature, those numbers are not surprising, says author Zhang Lijia in the South China Morning Post.
Zhang Lijia:
Do singles do themselves and society a disservice?
Not really, in my view. Sure, family support and emotional connection are vital to one’s physical and mental health. But living alone doesn’t equal being lonely or a total lack of a sexual or emotional life. It is extremely unlikely that the single tidal wave will undermine stability or result in an increase of vice.
Rather, it is a global trend that accompanies development – the better developed a country is, the higher number of singles it usually has. Living alone first gained traction in early industrialised countries and accelerated in the 1950s. Currently, only around 17 per cent of Chinese adults live alone, compared to 42 per cent in the United States. The percentage in Sweden and Norway is even higher – over 50 per cent – yet instability or crime is not a real problem there.
So, there’s no need to lose sleep over the rise in singles. If our government is worried about the fertility rate, it should give single women access to assisted reproductive technology…
The community and our authorities should accept that marriage should be a choice instead of an obligation.
A hidden problem in China are the 70 million children in the countryside, left behind by their migrant parents who left to work elsewhere in de big cities, says author Zhang Lijiain an interview with the Borgen Project. Many drop out of school and those who remain face dropping quality of their education. Zhang Lijia is currently working on a book on left-behind children (LBC’s).
The Borgen Project:
While their parents seek more money in the city, left-behind children are left in inadequate school buildings with limited supplies and ill-prepared teachers. In an interview with The Borgen Project, Lijiah Zhang, an author and journalist who examines China’s left-behind children, stressed that education is the largest problem these children face. “Without their parents, the children are more likely to lose interest in their studies and sometimes drop out of school, the opposite of what their parents hope for,” she said. Indeed, over 13% of left-behind children drop out by the eighth grade. Another reason for dropouts is the household responsibilities some left-behind children must take on, such as agricultural work, which leaves them with no time for academics.
For those who do continue their education, the quality is waning. With teachers lacking incentives and resources, education is a large obstacle for LBC. Educators hired for rural teaching positions are often fresh out of training and possess little teaching experience to offer a proper education. But because they are cheaper to pay, schools that lack funding hire them constantly. The staff is overworked and tremendously underpaid, with some rural educators working over 12 hours a day. This poor teaching quality combined with cramped classrooms and a lack of technology sets rural children up for failure.
Left-behind children dropping out of school perpetuates cyclical poverty. China’s economic expansion over the past 40 years has brought about 800 million people out of poverty, but it has also widened the gap between rural and urban communities. Families in poverty continue to struggle with money, and the number of parents deciding to leave children behind is rising. These children are stuck living with the effects of poverty, and with no parental guidance, they have little means of digging their way out.
Zhang stated that many LBC feel powerless in their situations, which leads to them losing interest in their schooling and dropping out, thus reducing their chances of climbing the employment ladder. Because of the difference in economic opportunities between rural and urban communities, poor children remain poor while the rich stay rich…
The diets of left-behind children are often also insufficient. According to a 2015 study, left-behind boys consumed more fat and less protein in their diets. This puts them at an increased risk for obesity and stunted growth. Zhang said: “I think the LBC’s diet is worse than non-LBC. Their guardians, usually their grandparents, are mostly very frugal. They also don’t have any idea about healthy diet or nutrition.” Limited nutrition can lead to poor school performance in addition to long-term health risks.
Was it a victory as China claimed? Most historians outside the mainland agreed that it was a genuine stalemate, resulting in the 1953 armistice. However, the war was “a powerful vehicle for creating a stronger sense of socialist identity at home”, according to University of Oxford historian Rana Mitter, author of the recently published book China’s Good War. “Mao’s regime used the war as a means of mobilising sentiment within China, helping to increase the wider sense of nationalist feeling.”
I believe the war gave a morale boost to millions of Chinese, in the wake of the humiliation China had suffered at the hands of foreign powers. Having won the respect and fear of its neighbours, China became a major regional power after the war.
Even if it had been a victory, how about its cost? China spent over 10 billion yuan on the war (US$1.5 billion at current exchange rates), a devastating amount for a country that was desperately poor and scarred by a civil war that had just ended. And there was the heavy human cost. According to official figures, nearly 360,000 Chinese soldiers were either killed or wounded, including Mao’s son, Mao Anying. The true death toll could be higher.
The Korean war is thought to be one of the most destructive conflicts in the modern era, with around 3 million casualties. The monumental event deserves to be commemorated and the truth surrounding it needs to be told.
As the Black Lives Matter movement took over some of the headlines, China typically dismissed racism as a Western problem. Author Zhang Lijia begs to differ, in The Wire. “The Chinese government claims to have “zero tolerance” for racism, but there have been no reports that anyone has been punished for the actions against the Africans in Guangzhou or elsewhere,” she adds.
Zhang Lijia:
Women who married Black men were often insulted publicly for 下嫁 – marrying beneath them – whilst women with white husbands were sometimes accused of being “gold diggers”.
It dawned on me that as they grappled with modernisation, many Chinese were placing themselves in the middle of a racial hierarchy: above the black and below the white.
The outbreak of racial tension in Guangzhou last April did trigger some reflection. One unidentified African resident of the city – a man – made a video confessing his love for China and uploaded it on social media. In fluent Chinese he said he had been living in China for nine years, regarded himself as Chinese and considered China his mother. Sadly, he was rewarded with a deluge of taunts and jeers.
“Don’t be a hypocrite!” one Chinese netizen replied. “You love China only because China is richer than your country.” Another slung an insult. “You aren’t a Chinese at all. Don’t outstay your welcome. You lot are cockroaches and rats!”
China’s rising position in the world has led to the rise of nationalism, which is all apparent in those messages. With this lack of public awareness, racist discourse has become an integral part of Chinese nationalism.
In a book about race and medicine in China, sinologist Frank Dikötter pointed out that in China darker races were “discursively represented as hereditarily inadequate and waiting to go into extinction.”
As it has rippled across the globe, the BLM movement has forced civil society in several Asian countries to confront their own racial and ethnical prejudices. The result has been a spate of protests and public debates on issues such as the discrimination against Papuans in Indonesia, the privilege of the Chinese in Singapore and the death of Indians in custody in Malaysia.
Let’s face it: racism exists in every society. Professor Barry Sautman, a professor in the Division of Social Science at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology wrote a paper, ‘Anti-Black Racism in Post Mao China,’ in which he called for an enforced legal deterrent. “Without it, no place in the world can diminish racial discrimination,” he said to me in an interview.
As a Chinese citizen I can only hope that the government will take the opportunity created by the rise of the BLM movement to deal frontally with racism in China, allow its people to discuss and show their support for it and encourage public debate, as Japan is doing.
The Chinese government claims to have “zero tolerance” for racism, but there have been no reports that anyone has been punished for the actions against the Africans in Guangzhou or elsewhere.
(January 2017) on prostitution in China, looks at the troubled relationship between feminism and motherhood in her mother country, in an interview with the
Women are among the most active in the workforce, but political participation is lagging like nowhere else in the world. Social commentator Zhang Lijiia dives into the patriarchal culture of China and how political participation in government can be improved, for the South China Morning Post.