Submitted By: Andrew Steen

Recently, Chinese parents prefer girls to boys. For centuries, Chinese families have preferred male children because they can work on the farms, and earn more than females (and not transfer it to their husbands). But with the amount of empty nesters in China rising, urban couples are becoming less in need of income, and more in need of companionship.

Since 1979, most Chinese couples have been limited to only one child. And with the parent’s entire resources and attention showered upon a single child, the youth become more educated, but at the same time more self-oriented. This results in more Chinese young adults moving out of the country in search of jobs, while leaving their parents alone with the empty nest. In China, the children are supposed to care for their parents as they get old, but the recent Newsweek article, China’s New Empty Nest , states that “forty-two percent of Chinese families in 2005 consisted of an old couple living alone, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.” And since it’s still considered shameful to live in a nursing home, urban parents are beginning to prefer a loyal girl, to a boy who will leave them in search of riches.

This increase in parental abandonment has led some lonely couples to place classified ads seeking new daughters. The Zhendong family was “lonely and lost,” so they wrote an ad titled, “Elderly couple desperately seeking daughter.” But they clarified that they don’t want a maid, just someone to hang out with and keep them company. Another couple, Wu Shaoqui and his wife, began “adopting” daughters in 2006, and now they have three who visit them on weekends and holidays to play cards, chit-chat, and have a good time. Sounds like a great arrangement, but what are the social implications of the shift away from the century old social security system based on filial piety?

China is already experiencing a surge of national programs that promote respect for the elderly. So does this mean that a few years of capitalism, and its opportunities to gain wealth abroad, is enough for Chinese sons and daughters to disregard thousands of years of tradition an honor? The world already views America as an indulgent country with few non-material values. Is China headed in this direction? If so, is it because of capitalism, or globalization, or education, or media, or something else? Or do young adults still honor their parents, but in a modern way?