Wednesday 8 June 2011
Leftover women in Hong Kong to look for Mr. Right in mainland China
“剩女” Shengnv (Leftover Women is now a buzzword in China to refer single or unmarried women over the age of 25. There are many different hierarchies of the left-over women. Single women between 25-30 are called “剩斗士” sheng dou shi (Left-over fighters), as women in this age range still have the energy and hope to find true love. Between 30-35, they are called “必剩客” bi sheng ke(pronounced the same as Pizzahut in Chinese, means literally “must win”), suggesting their chances of getting married are pretty small. For those above 35 years old, they are the “齐天大剩” qi tian da sheng (Leftover Kings, pronounced the same as the Monkey King in Chinese literally means heavenly leftover), because they have been viewed by many.
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Leftover women in Hong Kong to look for Mr. Right in mainland China
Guangzhou Daily
10 May 2011
“剩女” Shengnv (Leftover Women is now a buzzword in China to refer single or unmarried women over the age of 25. There are many different hierarchies of the left-over women. Single women between 25-30 are called “剩斗士” sheng dou shi (Left-over fighters), as women in this age range still have the energy and hope to find true love. Between 30-35, they are called “必剩客” bi sheng ke(pronounced the same as Pizzahut in Chinese, means literally “must win”), suggesting their chances of getting married are pretty small. For those above 35 years old, they are the “齐天大剩” qi tian da sheng (Leftover Kings, pronounced the same as the Monkey King in Chinese literally means heavenly leftover), because they have been viewed by many.
Leftover women are not only single, but are usually “three-high” too highly-educated, highly-paid and highly independent. Thus they usually have a relatively high standard for their material life. In Hong Kong, there’s the same phenomenon. Men in Hong Kong complain about Hong Kong women being too materialistic and first thing these women ask are their education background, job and salary. It’s like these women are doing target-based sales. Moreover, most of the leftover women don’t want to have children.
All these seems to give men in Hong Kong too much pressure and have made many men in Hong Kong turn their eyes to mainland China. In their eyes, the women in Mainland China are more submissive and more traditional, and thus are more suitable to start a family with. As more and more Hong Kong men now start their business in mainland China, the trend continues.
This however, has made things even more difficult for left-over women in Hong Kong, as there are more women than men. According to the government’s statics, the ratio of men to women in HK is 95:100. The gap will become even larger in 30 years, possibly to 80:100.
Usually, if there’s a marriage between people from mainland China and HK, it’s a HK guy marries a mainland China girl. But as shown in this picture, more and more HK brides go north to marry mainland guys.
“This year, we already had 3 groups of single women and men from HK come to Xiamen for the speed dating program. And almost every day there are people from Hong Kong who go to Xiamen for this program.” said, Ou Yang Aizhu, from the Xiamen organization for the speed dating program, “Women from HK are mostly looking for businessmen. Maybe because they’re from HK, the big city, they feel more comfortable to talk and easier to get along with the businessmen than with the men working in the government and other job position.”
A survey conducted by The Chinese University of Hong Kong shows, among 315 female students in the 6 universities in HK, more than 34% of them worry about living their life alone and 20% think there are too few men in HK and they have to join the speed dating program to know boys.
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