Differences between Chinese and Western mindsets on children

Continuing on the differences in percepts of Chinese in compared to the ones of the Westerners, in the post today I would like to point out some more in those stark differences. In the last post I stopped on the first in two aspects in Chinese’s perception on children that was their preference to have many children. The last aspect on children in the mindset of Chinese people is the preference of boys than girls. Indeed until this time of modern China, most of the Chinese especially in the rural areas are sticking to that notion that boys are better than girls. Why? Ok. The first reason explained for this is the labor sources. In rural areas where farming is the main sector the need of labors is very crucial, especially the strong people who can handle the very hard jobs of farming (this is also because of the economic development in those areas where agriculture has not been modernized and mechanized so much). As a result, on this regard it is obvious that men are stronger and needed than women. If you want to find out more about this issue, please visit this link of Ancient china

However, that perception on preference of men for labor is not the main factor because not all of Chinese people are working in farming industry but they are also living in urban areas and they do not need so many labors for doing few hard jobs. Indeed, the main factors that greatly contribute for that mindset of preference for boys is that boys will contribute not labor force but money and caring to the family. Chinese people usually think that girls will be no more ‘their children’ when they get married. When girls get married, it also means that they belong to the husbands’ families. All of their finances, laboring force and many others will be contributed to families of their husbands. In contrast, men when they get married will bring more money, labors and many other things from the wives they marry. Furthermore, men will live with their parents and with their wives, they will take care of parents when parents become old or weak. Meanwhile, because girls will follow their husbands, they will hardly take care of their own parents but their in-law-parents instead.

In addition to that, like many other Asian countries parents have to give their daughters dowries that will be very difficult for poor families in rural areas. As a result, you can be able to hear somewhere the fact that ridiculously in the next 20 years, Chinese men may have to find wives somewhere abroad or even import wives for them because men have been outnumbering women.