ChinaDaily

Hong Kong, China

Thursday, March 19, 2015

5
Renminbi
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Chinese Gender Imbalance

China has one of the largest populations
in the world, and most of that population is
made up of males. This country is very bias
over men, saying that they are more
valuable than women because the males
can work the land and can support their
families in their old age.
Chinese men have been outnumbering
the women in the country. There are
currently about 119 boys per 100 girls,
when the global average is 103 males to
107 females. Studies have shown that in
rural areas it is much worse; the ratio is as
high as 130 males to 100 females.
Researchers have also said that too many
men and not enough women in the Chinese
villages will probably worsen.
In the 1970s, China had a one-child
policy where families could only have one
child. Since the Chinese value the men
more, couples aimed for a boy child. If a
family got a girl, they most likely
abandoned the child or aborted her just to

2
make sure that their one child was a son.
This law is the number one reason why the
gender imbalance in China has gotten way
out of hand.
Recently the Chinese government
announced that they have modified the
one-child policy and there is now a
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two-child policy.
If the parents are both
singletons, meaning they are both an only
child, they can have two children. But this
still isnt stopping women from only having
male children. It has been acknowledged
that women have been transferring blood
samples overseas to determine the gender
of the familys unborn baby, a test which is
2
banned in China.
Researchers have said that by the year
2020, men can see themselves without
1
wives because of the gender imbalance.
This could also end up leading to
intergenerational marriages where the wife
1
is older than the husband.
Since the birth
ratio is skewed, the chances of a Chinese
man finding a spouse is very low and is

widening the age gap between partners.

Therefore, the man must marry a woman
older than him.
Because of this serious problem, there
have been less women across the country.
Recently the government has noticed this
conflict of gender imbalance and has
realized that too many men could lead to
social instability. The Chinese government
is currently encouraging the women to
have girls by making programs that could
help them to have female children.
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Chinese men waiting outside to win over the womans heart.

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China Bans Puns

What is a pun? A pun is a joke exploiting
the different possible meanings of a word.
For example, a pun would be; it is not that
the juggler didnt know how to juggle, it is
because he did not have the balls to do it. In
China, their government has decided to
take away wordplay from their people and
ban puns for good. The reason for this is
that they believe puns could mislead the
8
public, especially the young children.
The
Chinese language is perfect to puns because
9
there are plenty of homophones.
Changing
the character for another can make a
difference in the meaning of a phrase. A lot
of the popular sayings in China rely on
wordplay, and their government doesnt
like that. The attempt to ban wordplay is
the governments way of stepping up their
8
control over the media.
I feel that banning puns in China wont
solve anything. If their leader thinks that
taking away that privilege of speaking what
they want will help the younger readers,
they are wrong. Children should be able to
grow up saying whatever comes to their
mind, even if it is a joke, everyone should
have that freedom of speech.
In the Holy Bible, Jesus made a lot of
puns. Now, you are a fisherman, he told a
disciple. But I will make you fishers OF
11
men.
I am a Christian and I believe that if
Jesus was able to use puns, I feel that I am
allowed to do so as well.
If you think about it, everything is a pun.

Company names to headlines. How can you

expect to live in a world of news when puns
11
are everywhere.
If our country had all this
time to take away wordplay, why did China
decide to ban it now? If our leader thought
that puns were a bad influence, they should
have banned it a long time ago. Eventually
Chinas people will have to face the puns
sooner or later, so why not now? Lets just
face it, the world is very punny.

Works Cited
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An example of a pun that is related to what Chinas government

is doing.
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11.

"China Faces Growing Gender Imbalance." BBC News. BBC, 11

Jan. 2010. Web. 13 Mar. 2015.
<
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>.
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>.
2010, 11:16AM GMT 11 Jan. "Chinese Gender Imbalance Will
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<
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/69
66037/Chinese-gender-imbalance-will-leave-millions-of-men-w
ithout-wives.html
>.
Los Angeles Times
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<
http://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-china-bans-puns-2
0141203-story.html
>.
N.p., n.d. Web.
<
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/28/china-me
dia-watchdog-bans-wordplay-puns
>.
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Quartz
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Mar. 2015.
<
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>.
"Chinese Media Banning Puns? End Pun Control!"
Washington
Post
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<
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2/05/chinese-media-banning-puns-end-pun-control/
>.