The real issue for China’s ‘leftover women’
Kelly Yang says a publicity stunt at Shanghai’s marriage market highlights the real problem with more people staying single – an inadequate social safety net for single elderly people
Are you still single? The annual question dreaded by China’s ‘leftover women’
But here’s the thing. I’ve been to the marriage park in Shanghai and walked among the sea of umbrellas, each one featuring a different girl, unmarried, in her 30s, “leftover women” if you will. I’ve stood in front of those umbrellas, fully prepared to lecture the mothers standing by them. What kind of a mother gives out her daughter’s phone number and extols her virtues to strangers?
What China needs is not more matchmaking parks, but real, sustainable solutions for its growing elderly population
But then I looked into these women’s eyes and saw love. They weren’t monsters; they were mothers. As one mother tearfully asked me, “What will you have me do? Yes, my daughter is happy now. But what’s going to happen to her in 30 years, when she becomes old like me? Who will make her soup when she’s sick? Who will even know when she’s sick?”
That’s when it dawned on me. The real issue of leftover women isn’t one of tradition or even nagging, overbearing parents. It’s about not having more of a safety net for single old people.