Chinese Government to Increase Production of Females
With China's male-to-female ratio at 1 1/4-to-1 and rising, authorities here worry that Chinese men will start leaving the country, not so much in search of a better life, but just to get a date.
The government has begun aggressively encouraging parents to have and keep daughters, spurred on in part by the immediate concern that there won't be enough little girls to wave flags and look adorable on camera during the 2008 Olympic Games.
The new campaign involves offering would-be parents of females tax breaks and a variety of financial incentives. More visible is the advertising blitz, featuring building-size banners of the sort that once displayed portraits of Chairman Mao and heroically posed collective workers but that now bear the slogan "Daughters: They're Not Just for Gay American Couples to Adopt Anymore!"
In addition, Chinese entrepreneurs returning from abroad report that, according to surveys and ads they've seen in Maxim, FHM and other "lad" magazines, Western men think that Asian chicks are, "like, totally hot" and, while not aiming to become a sex-tour destination like Thailand, exactly, believe a little more "eye candy" walking around wouldn't hurt anything.
This is actually the government's second attempt to correct the country's growing gender imbalance. The first, in 2003, was a series of ads in the foreign press meant to entice women from other Asian countries to emigrate with the tag line, "China: Where the Boys Are!" This fell short of expectations.
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