Preference to male child over female child

[sun888_99]

dear cecil,
I read somewhere that chinese people give preference to male child over female child. Is it true. Thanks.

[Cecil Lee]

Dear Anon,
Yes, in my opinion, this is indeed a true statement.
1. Currently in mainland China, where they have a `one' child family planning, there are many articles that mentioned the problem where the ratio of males babies are higher than female babies.
Such articles, do mention that many parents had either aborted or killed/murdered female babies secretly.
2. To understand why this is happening, one can take clue to this:
Chinese grand parents and even parents have a social pressure to give birth to baby boys. Why?
This is because only the males can `carry' their family name.
For example, the grand father's Surname is Tang, only a male child born to him can carry on his surname `Tang'.
For the female, if her name is Tang Ai Lin, once she marries into (assuming another Chinese family) will take on the husbands surname.
For example if her husband Surname is Wong, her maiden name is now Tang Ai Lin. Her child (either boy or girl) has to adopt her husband's Surname. Some `modern' working wife may alternatively call themselves Wong-Tang Ai Lin.
Here we know that her true Surname is Tang and her husband's is Wong. A further simplication is she is known as Mrs Wong.
But the son can never be called Wong-Tang Boy Boy. He must use the surname Wong. His children has to use the surname Wong.
Even if Mrs Wong is divorced, she `cannot' simply change her son's name to Tang Boy Boy.
Therefore, if we follow the above, if a male child is not born, the family name `cannot' carry on. Thus for the above reason, in the past, if the wife cannot bear a son, she is dispised by her in-laws and even the husband had no choice but find another wife who can give birth to a boy. (Erh.. especially for rich families).
In the past, Chinese royalty will execute an entire family if they are out of their favour or due to treason. This is a cruel way to try and exterminate the entire family with that Surname.
Warmest Regards,
Cecil

Quote

On 11/1/99 2:00:30 AM, Anonymous wrote:
dear cecil,
I read somewhere that chinese
people give preference to male
child over female child. Is it
true. Thanks.