Apparently the chat rooms are being monitored by more than just Sally and her co-workers. "Handsome Boy" and "Too Tall Baldy" have easily been identified, but "Amazon Goddess" is still a mystery.
Sally says she has a 50-50 chance it's her, not bad for a first mention in the NYTimes.
Mixersoft works at the US embassy in Beijing. See the June 21st entry for context.
Yum. Yum! Katie Beth is killing me softly with pictures of Chinese food.
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New Book on Security Implication of Asia's Gender Imbalance; Xiao Qiang links to an article in the New York Times, and makes these comments:
In an email discussion group, Professor Peter Gries of the University of Colorado asked in response to this article: "do we know about sex ratios and crime in China? Are crime rates among the unmarried higher than in other countries? Any data among the migrant population and sex/marriage ratios? And what of the international security link? Hudson suggests a diversionary war hypothesis, but Chen Jian has argued for a different kind of link in the Chinese context: the use of foreign wars for domestic mobilization. And the PLA is not expanding anymore. Any thoughts on either domestic or international security implications?" To me, these are excellent questions not only for China researchers, but also for all people who are concerned about China and this critically important subject.
These are great questions. There seems to be a trend of late in academia connecting the status of women with economic growth, the development of democracy, and other positive effects. Of course the relationship cannot be entirely causal, but I don't doubt that there is a strong two-way reinforcing relation between them.
UPDATE: In the comments, Fons Tuinstra links to an article he wrote for ChinaBiz called Missing: 20 million women - the WTO column, about an investigation he made into a similar phenomenon in the Netherlands:
The difference was caused by the fact that women marry earlier than men. So, for a country with 1.3 billion inhabitants, 'missing' 20 million women is not that much of a problem, although some of the men involved might not agree with me.
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It looks like the Brainysmurf had a good, oh, four or five months on the New York Times. From Exposé of Peasants' Plight Is Suppressed by China:
"An Investigation of China's Peasantry" deals with little else. It praises the spirit of central government efforts to reduce the rural tax burden and raise farm incomes. But it shows how such policies are sooner or later undone by local party bosses determined to line their own pockets.
It also details how local officials deceive China's top leaders, including Jiang Zemin, the retired party chief who still leads the military, and Zhu Rongji, the retired prime minister. Even Mr. Wen, whom the authors credit with understanding rural problems better than other leaders, is portrayed as being unable to penetrate the local officials' Potemkin displays of fealty.
I think it's the potential collaboration between peasant muscle and 知识分子 brains that unsettles the Center.
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Micah Sittig's Chinese improves and worsens with the phases of the moon. He enjoys non-fiction books, bicycling, foreign languages and ethnic restaurants. He is an inveterate globetrotter, but can always be found at micah@earthling.net