Leftover in China: The Women Shaping the World's Next Superpower

Nonfiction, History, Asian, China, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Gender Studies, Women&
Cover of the book Leftover in China: The Women Shaping the World's Next Superpower by Roseann Lake, W. W. Norton & Company
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Roseann Lake ISBN: 9780393254648
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company Publication: February 13, 2018
Imprint: W. W. Norton & Company Language: English
Author: Roseann Lake
ISBN: 9780393254648
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Publication: February 13, 2018
Imprint: W. W. Norton & Company
Language: English

Factory Girls meets The Vagina Monologues in this fascinating narrative on China’s single women—and why they could be the source of its economic future.

Forty years ago, China enacted the one-child policy, only recently relaxed. Among many other unintended consequences, it resulted in both an enormous gender imbalance—with a predicted twenty million more men than women of marriage age by 2020—and China’s first generations of only-daughters. Given the resources normally reserved for boys, these girls were pushed to study, excel in college, and succeed in careers, as if they were sons.

Now living in an economic powerhouse, enough of these women have decided to postpone marriage—or not marry at all—to spawn a label: "leftovers." Unprecedentedly well-educated and goal-oriented, they struggle to find partners in a society where gender roles have not evolved as vigorously as society itself, and where new professional opportunities have made women less willing to compromise their careers or concede to marriage for the sake of being wed. Further complicating their search for a mate, the vast majority of China’s single men reside in and are tied to the rural areas where they were raised. This makes them geographically, economically, and educationally incompatible with city-dwelling “leftovers,” who also face difficulty in partnering with urban men, given the urban men’s general preference for more dutiful, domesticated wives.

Part critique of China’s paternalistic ideals, part playful portrait of the romantic travails of China’s trailblazing women and their well-meaning parents who are anxious to see their daughters snuggled into traditional wedlock, Roseann Lake’s Leftover in China focuses on the lives of four individual women against a backdrop of colorful anecdotes, hundreds of interviews, and rigorous historical and demographic research to show how these "leftovers" are the linchpin to China’s future.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Factory Girls meets The Vagina Monologues in this fascinating narrative on China’s single women—and why they could be the source of its economic future.

Forty years ago, China enacted the one-child policy, only recently relaxed. Among many other unintended consequences, it resulted in both an enormous gender imbalance—with a predicted twenty million more men than women of marriage age by 2020—and China’s first generations of only-daughters. Given the resources normally reserved for boys, these girls were pushed to study, excel in college, and succeed in careers, as if they were sons.

Now living in an economic powerhouse, enough of these women have decided to postpone marriage—or not marry at all—to spawn a label: "leftovers." Unprecedentedly well-educated and goal-oriented, they struggle to find partners in a society where gender roles have not evolved as vigorously as society itself, and where new professional opportunities have made women less willing to compromise their careers or concede to marriage for the sake of being wed. Further complicating their search for a mate, the vast majority of China’s single men reside in and are tied to the rural areas where they were raised. This makes them geographically, economically, and educationally incompatible with city-dwelling “leftovers,” who also face difficulty in partnering with urban men, given the urban men’s general preference for more dutiful, domesticated wives.

Part critique of China’s paternalistic ideals, part playful portrait of the romantic travails of China’s trailblazing women and their well-meaning parents who are anxious to see their daughters snuggled into traditional wedlock, Roseann Lake’s Leftover in China focuses on the lives of four individual women against a backdrop of colorful anecdotes, hundreds of interviews, and rigorous historical and demographic research to show how these "leftovers" are the linchpin to China’s future.

More books from W. W. Norton & Company

Cover of the book Not a Scientist: How Politicians Mistake, Misrepresent, and Utterly Mangle Science by Roseann Lake
Cover of the book Invisible Monsters: A Novel by Roseann Lake
Cover of the book Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II by Roseann Lake
Cover of the book Frontera: Margaritas, Guacamoles, and Snacks by Roseann Lake
Cover of the book Target Tokyo: Jimmy Doolittle and the Raid That Avenged Pearl Harbor by Roseann Lake
Cover of the book The Cineaste: Poems by Roseann Lake
Cover of the book American Revolutions: A Continental History, 1750-1804 by Roseann Lake
Cover of the book The New Arcadia: Poems by Roseann Lake
Cover of the book The Black Unicorn: Poems by Roseann Lake
Cover of the book Naked Statistics: Stripping the Dread from the Data by Roseann Lake
Cover of the book Successful Psychopharmacology: Evidence-Based Treatment Solutions for Achieving Remission by Roseann Lake
Cover of the book The Myth of Mirror Neurons: The Real Neuroscience of Communication and Cognition by Roseann Lake
Cover of the book Man's Search for Himself by Roseann Lake
Cover of the book The Bonobo and the Atheist: In Search of Humanism Among the Primates by Roseann Lake
Cover of the book A Great and Noble Scheme: The Tragic Story of the Expulsion of the French Acadians from their American Homeland by Roseann Lake
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy