Hong Kong women are lonelier and
lonelier By Kent Ewing
HONG KONG - When Deng Xiaoping coined the
maxim "one country, two systems" that would
reunite Hong Kong with the motherland 10 years
ago, China's former paramount leader was probably
not thinking about the systems that govern
relations between the sexes. Census figures show,
however, that like everything else, the
relationship between men and women is being
reshaped by the 1997 handover from British rule.
In a nutshell, Hong Kong men are warming
up to mainland women a lot faster than their
female counterparts are looking across the
border for romance. Indeed,
the city's latest demographic data paint a
distinctly lonely picture for Hong Kong women. The
recently released results of the city's 2006
census show that the number of unmarried Hong Kong
women living on their own shot up 43.8% over the
past five years - from 127,001 in 2001 to 182,648
last year. In 1996, the year before the handover,
there were 103,938 single women living by
themselves.
In this city of nearly 7
million people, lonely guys - 185,005 of whom were
identified by the census - still outnumber lonely
girls, but their ranks have increased at a rate
(14.1%) much less dramatic than that for single
women.
In addition, over the next 30
years, romantic prospects are projected to get
progressively worse for women as more and more men
get the pick of the lot. The growing solitude of
Hong Kong women is exacerbated by the city's
gender ratio, which is skewed - at least as far as
romance is concerned - in favor of men. As of last
year, according the census, there were 912 men for
every 1,000 women in the city. By 2036, however,
the gap will widen to a 763:1,000 ratio - and
these statistics exclude the hordes of foreign
domestic helpers working in Hong Kong, most of
whom are female.
The trend started more
than a decade ago. In 1993, there were 1,063 men
per 1,000 women in the city. By 2003, however, the
number of males had fallen to 998 for every 1,000
females, and the male side of the equation is
expected to continue its decline, to 953, next
year.
The women most affected by the
decline in males happen to be the most
marriageable, ranging in age from 25 to 44. There
are now 907 men for every 1,000 members of this
age group, but the disparity will increase to 664
men for every 1,000 women by 2036. And there will
be a lot of lonely middle-aged and old ladies,
too, with 695 men projected for every 1,000 women
in the 45-65 age range. That's a big drop for that
age group, for which census takers found a
1,030:1,000 male-female ratio last year.
Commissioner for census and statistics
Fung Hing-wang did not offer much of an
explanation for the widening disparity in the
city's gender ratio - other than to note that
women live longer than men. Life expectancy for
Hong Kong women, now 85.6 years, is expected to
rise to 88.3 years by 2036, as compared with 79.5
years now for men and 82.7 years by 2036. Life
expectancy in Hong Kong for men is the highest in
the world and second only to Japan for women.
The commissioner advised Hong Kong women
not to become overly gloomy about the future.
Despite their lack of options in the city, Fung
said they could always "find their Mr Right" on
the mainland - where, because of China's one-child
policy and a patrilineal preference for boys, men
outnumber women by a ratio of 119:100.
But
Fung's own data suggest that his advice has fallen
mostly on deaf ears. For many Hong Kong women, it
is Mr Wrong who is waiting for them on the other
side of the Lowu border checkpoint. Last year,
28,000 Hong Kong men tied the knot with mainland
women, an 80% increase since 2001, while 6,500
women chose a mainland partner. All told, 35% of
the marriages registered in Hong Kong involved a
mainland spouse.
Of course, what the
census figures do not tell us is why Hong Kong men
fancy mainland women so much more than Hong Kong
women fall for mainland guys. But the general
perception is that many of the city's men prefer
women from the mainland because they are more
likely to follow traditional, subservient norms of
marriage.
Hong Kong women, on the other
hand, are far better educated and more independent
than their mainland counterparts and do not want
to be bossed around by patriarchal husbands.
Moreover, many of the city's women are financially
independent and no longer think of marriage in
terms of economic security. A rising divorce rate
can probably also be attributed to the growing
assertiveness of Hong Kong women.
As
Bik-kei - a 32-year-old administrative assistant
enjoying the single life - put it: "For single
women who are financially secure with a good
education, I feel the environment in Hong Kong
allows us to live happily and stay single instead
of being submissive to someone. Marrying a
mainland guy, there is a possibility of family
pressure, while parents might feel he has a lower
social status. The language barrier - because most
Hong Kong people speak Cantonese while Putonghua
[Mandarin] is the language of the mainland - could
also be an issue."
Also single, Wing-kee,
a 30-year-old international-school teacher, thinks
Hong Kong women may be too quick to judge mainland
men. But would she marry one?
"I would
consider marrying a person if I think he would be
someone who shared my interests, beliefs, goals
and vision in life ... I don't fit mainland guys
into a general stereotype. There are many types of
mainland Chinese guys, and you would need to know
them all personally before you would make a
judgment on whether you would marry them or not."
But she added that the career-mindedness
of Hong Kong women may put off potential mainland
suitors.
"In general," she said, "the work
culture in Hong Kong has resulted in a greater
proportion of women who are career-focused and
independent, which may counter some of the
expectations of mainland men."
Ultimately,
what the widening rift between the city's men and
women points to is a declining birth rate that is
turning the city gray. Already one of the lowest
in the world, Hong Kong's fertility rate of 0.98
children per woman is expected to fall further -
to 0.9 - over the next 30 years. By 2036,
projections show, half of the population will be
above 46.1 years of age, and the proportion of
people aged 65 or older will rise from 12% to 26%.
With the prospect of one of the world's
most exciting cities slowing to a geriatric crawl,
Chief Executive Donald Tsang has called on Hong
Kong couples to step up reproduction - at an
astonishing rate of three children per family. In
an interview with The Financial Times in June,
Tsang also set out his vision of Hong Kong as a
city of 10 million people that rivals London and
New York as an international financial center.
Locally, both the chief executive's call
to action for Hong Kong couples and his vision of
a city with a population of 10 million have been
greeted with, at best, skepticism and at worst
ridicule. That's not surprising in a city that is
short on land and already crowded with people,
many of whom live in shoebox-size apartments. More
realistically, census takers estimate that the
population will grow 0.7% a year to reach 8.57
million in 2036.
But maybe Tsang is not as
daft as his critics think. There is further room
for development in Hong Kong's New Territories and
outlying islands - and, of course, there is a
ready and willing population increase waiting to
cross the border. In the end, Hong Kong-mainland
romances may wind up sustaining the city's growth,
and what love alone cannot accomplish, a more open
border policy can supplement.
Census data
also point to what might be another interesting
trend: there were 65,626 births in city last year
- a rise of 36% from 2001 - and commissioner Fung
says 30,000 of those babies had mainland mothers.
In a sign that Hong Kong, 10 years after the
handover, is still conflicted about its
relationship with the motherland, however, the
Hospital Authority, starting in February, made
fees for mainland mothers double those of their
Hong Kong counterparts.
Mainland moms may
also be turned away at the border if they appear
more than seven months pregnant and do not have an
advance hospital booking. If Hong Kong is going to
retain its youthful dynamism, that decision - and
the discriminatory mindset it represents - clearly
needs to be rethought, and more mainland talent,
pregnant or not, should be welcome in the city. In
that way, the chief executive's quixotic vision
may become a reality. But that still leaves a lot
of lonely Hong Kong girls.
Kent
Ewing is a teacher and writer at Hong Kong
International School. He can be reached at
kewing@hkis.edu.hk.
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