Henry
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While the adoption of child brides (girls adopted into a family as future daughters in law) is no longer common in Taiwan, the practice is still prevalent in modern Chinese society, leading to a sharp increase in kidnapping cases involving young girls.
More than thirty years after the introduction of China's one-child program to control population growth in the late 1970s, the under-19 male to female ratio is seriously unbalanced throughout the country.
More than 24 million Chinese men of marriageable age could find themselves without a partner to wed by 2020 and a trend of aborting female fetuses is a major contributing factor, a study has found.
The situation has prompted some parents to adopt girls as their would-be daughters in law in rural villages, where men are having a particularly difficult time finding spouses.
A Southern Metropolis Weekly report focusing on the traditional custom of child bride adoption in Putian, a coastal city in the province of Fujian, was recently published. The practice is common in the city. According to a survey, between 120,000-600,000 people out of the city's population of more than three million people are adopted child brides, accounting for between 4-20 percent of the total population.
While some of the adopted child brides come mainly from impoverished families in Putian and adjoining areas, the majority are from the remote provinces of Guizhou, Sichuan and Yunnan. Most of them were brought to Putian by human traffickers, according to the report.
The number of girls adopted as future brides for sons had dwindled since the Marriage Law was promulgated in 1950, as the law guarantees all Chinese people the freedom to choose his or her marriage partner, including adopted child brides.
However, in the late 1970s the adoption culture re-emerged in rural areas due to the rise of mercenary marriages and the practice of the bride's side asking for a dowry.
Behind the adoptions are numerous touching stories behind the tragedy. For instance, on this year's Mother's Day on May 8, Guo Yuanyin, an adopted daughter in law, finally met her biological parents 35 years after she was adopted.
According to Guo's mother, Li Xiufeng, she sent out her youngest daughter in 1976 because she could not afford to raise the newborn as she had three other children in the family.
Kuo was then bought by Chen Yinai, a matchmaker in Putian for only 89 yuan (US$13.71), close to two months' wages for village workers.
According to local data, in 1983 the annual income of Putian village workers averaged 622 yuan (US$95.80).
Putian records showed that the practice of adopting child brides is particularly prevalent in mountainous and coastal areas. Most impoverished families who believed they could not afford to raise their baby girls would have chosen to sell them as child brides, while even well-off families who thought of girls as money-losing propositions would have sent out their daughters so they might not have to later pay out a huge sum for a dowry.
Indeed, in the agricultural society women are not considered part of the labor force. In addition, with most families preferring sons to daughters and maintaining the tradition of "bringing up sons to support parents in their old age," they usually choose to send their girl babies away in order to focus their efforts on nurturing their sons.
The main purpose of adopting child brides was to reduce the cost involved in getting married. However, the cost of marriage has become more affordable for farmers since their incomes have been on the rise since 1982, while the introduction of the one-child birth control policy has made men of marrying age more reluctant to wed girls who have grown up alongside them like sisters. All of these factors have contributed to a gradual decline of the adoption culture in the past few years. However, the practice is still prevalent in some areas and could well emerge again if the ratio of males to females remains skewed.
Child brides resurface in China with shortage of females
More than thirty years after the introduction of China's one-child program to control population growth in the late 1970s, the under-19 male to female ratio is seriously unbalanced throughout the country.
More than 24 million Chinese men of marriageable age could find themselves without a partner to wed by 2020 and a trend of aborting female fetuses is a major contributing factor, a study has found.
The situation has prompted some parents to adopt girls as their would-be daughters in law in rural villages, where men are having a particularly difficult time finding spouses.
A Southern Metropolis Weekly report focusing on the traditional custom of child bride adoption in Putian, a coastal city in the province of Fujian, was recently published. The practice is common in the city. According to a survey, between 120,000-600,000 people out of the city's population of more than three million people are adopted child brides, accounting for between 4-20 percent of the total population.
While some of the adopted child brides come mainly from impoverished families in Putian and adjoining areas, the majority are from the remote provinces of Guizhou, Sichuan and Yunnan. Most of them were brought to Putian by human traffickers, according to the report.
The number of girls adopted as future brides for sons had dwindled since the Marriage Law was promulgated in 1950, as the law guarantees all Chinese people the freedom to choose his or her marriage partner, including adopted child brides.
However, in the late 1970s the adoption culture re-emerged in rural areas due to the rise of mercenary marriages and the practice of the bride's side asking for a dowry.
Behind the adoptions are numerous touching stories behind the tragedy. For instance, on this year's Mother's Day on May 8, Guo Yuanyin, an adopted daughter in law, finally met her biological parents 35 years after she was adopted.
According to Guo's mother, Li Xiufeng, she sent out her youngest daughter in 1976 because she could not afford to raise the newborn as she had three other children in the family.
Kuo was then bought by Chen Yinai, a matchmaker in Putian for only 89 yuan (US$13.71), close to two months' wages for village workers.
According to local data, in 1983 the annual income of Putian village workers averaged 622 yuan (US$95.80).
Putian records showed that the practice of adopting child brides is particularly prevalent in mountainous and coastal areas. Most impoverished families who believed they could not afford to raise their baby girls would have chosen to sell them as child brides, while even well-off families who thought of girls as money-losing propositions would have sent out their daughters so they might not have to later pay out a huge sum for a dowry.
Indeed, in the agricultural society women are not considered part of the labor force. In addition, with most families preferring sons to daughters and maintaining the tradition of "bringing up sons to support parents in their old age," they usually choose to send their girl babies away in order to focus their efforts on nurturing their sons.
The main purpose of adopting child brides was to reduce the cost involved in getting married. However, the cost of marriage has become more affordable for farmers since their incomes have been on the rise since 1982, while the introduction of the one-child birth control policy has made men of marrying age more reluctant to wed girls who have grown up alongside them like sisters. All of these factors have contributed to a gradual decline of the adoption culture in the past few years. However, the practice is still prevalent in some areas and could well emerge again if the ratio of males to females remains skewed.
Child brides resurface in China with shortage of females
