Forever alone

India and China have one problem in common: infanticide or selective abortion of girl babies leading to a significant gender imbalance in poor areas. In India I have read that in the worst affected regions this has reached 800 girls to 1000 boys if selected by birth year. As recently reported by the BBC, China has a surplus of some 20 million men below the age of 30. In India at least, wealth is a factor, and without this rights to marriage would be somewhat limited (no option of marrying below). I'm trying to imagine the life of a man who knows there is a fair chance he will never marry, and in a conservative society this means never have a partner. Whilst I must have seen a happy life in poverty, it has never been pictured alone...

In the Chinese government's demonising of single women, I see fear...