Interesting story on singles in the SCMP

[TSkillet]

This is an accompanying article to one about mainland singles living together and having sex. . .I thought this was a bit more interesting:

Mainland sociologists divide society into four broad demographic groups: A, B, C and D. A represents wealthy professionals, B and C are middle- and working-class, and D represents the rural poor and migrant labourers.

Females from category A and males from group D make up a large proportion of the single population.

This theory is based on the idea that most men want to marry women of lower social status than themselves. An A-group man seeks to marry a B-group woman, for instance, while a B-group man seeks to marry a C-group woman, and so on. Thus educated, well-paid females at the top of the ladder and unskilled male labourers at the bottom are finding it difficult to meet suitable partners.

"The `surplus' single women are usually well-educated, independent and have a good income," said Tong Xin from the sociology department of Peking University. "They no longer have to rely on men financially and they prefer to remain single if they cannot find Mr Right."

Summer Zhang, who works as a secretary for a trade company, has been a member of a white-collar singles club for more than two years. "The women at the club are of a much higher standard than the men," she said. "I'm still waiting for the right man to come along, but I'm certainly not anxious about it," she said.

But 34-year-old government employee Michael Zhou said many men found experienced, independent women intimidating.

"Men want their opinions to be respected, particularly in an argument," he said. "But if a man's wife is his equal, things become complicated.''

Professor Tong said marriage used to be considered a kind of "insurance policy". As attitudes became more liberal and the standard of living improved, she said more and more single urban people "dare to say that they don't need this type of security".

She said that men still had the upper hand in the marriage market.

"Excellent men are an extremely limited resource and group-A women over the age of 30 begin to devalue quite rapidly," she said

[confucius]

Those group A women in China are the subject of my dissertation in Thorn Tree's Northeast Asia branch. This article indirectly supports my theories. Thank you for posting it here.