Leftover In China: The Women Shaping The World's Next Superpower
by Roseann Lake /
2018 / English / PDF
228 MB Download
Forty years ago in China, marriage was universal, compulsory, and a
woman's only means to a livelihood. Enter the one-child policy,
which despite its horrors, resulted in China's first generations of
urban only-daughters?girls who were raised without brothers and
pushed to study, achieve, and succeed as if they were sons. Fast
forward to the present, where in an urbanized economic powerhouse,
enough of these women have decided to postpone marriage?or not
marry at all?to spawn a label: "leftovers." Unprecedentedly
well-educated and goal-oriented, they struggle to find partners in
a society where gender roles have not evolved as vigorously as the
society itself. Part critique of China's paternalistic ideals, part
playful portrait of the romantic travails of China's trailblazing
women, Roseann Lake's Leftover in China employs colorful anecdotes,
hundreds of interviews, and rigorous historical and demographic
research to show how the "leftovers" are the ultimate linchpin to
China's future.
Forty years ago in China, marriage was universal, compulsory, and a
woman's only means to a livelihood. Enter the one-child policy,
which despite its horrors, resulted in China's first generations of
urban only-daughters?girls who were raised without brothers and
pushed to study, achieve, and succeed as if they were sons. Fast
forward to the present, where in an urbanized economic powerhouse,
enough of these women have decided to postpone marriage?or not
marry at all?to spawn a label: "leftovers." Unprecedentedly
well-educated and goal-oriented, they struggle to find partners in
a society where gender roles have not evolved as vigorously as the
society itself. Part critique of China's paternalistic ideals, part
playful portrait of the romantic travails of China's trailblazing
women, Roseann Lake's Leftover in China employs colorful anecdotes,
hundreds of interviews, and rigorous historical and demographic
research to show how the "leftovers" are the ultimate linchpin to
China's future.
