Promoting gender equality in mainland China will get the balance right

News that a young engineer had married a female robot called attention to the mainland’s deep gender imbalance. The central government must promote gender equality as a core value to change the traditional preference for boys

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A recent viral story of a mainland engineer marrying a robot he built because he couldn’t find a human wife shows a darker side to China’s still-deep gender imbalance. Photo: AFP

Published: 11:45pm, 21 Apr 2017Updated: 11:34am, 25 Apr 2018

News that a young mainland engineer married a female robot he built because he couldn’t find a human partner went viral. Apparently, even his own mother and close friends attended the marriage ceremony, even though it is not officially recognised. It’s not clear whether the whole episode has been a publicity stunt, as it is hard to imagine any mother approving such a “union”. At present, Ying Ying can only say a few words and has limited mobility. But her engineer husband promises to upgrade her features very soon.

Despite the comical and futuristic aspects of the story, it is also a little sad in that it calls attention to the deep gender imbalance on the mainland. China, of course, is not the only country that has this problem. India, a democracy which never had an enforced one-child policy, also suffers from the imbalance because of a similar cultural preference for boys and a low regard for the status of females.

Mainland authorities have essentially abandoned the one-child policy in most places in a bid to restore gender balance. But with a ratio of 113.5 men to every 100 women, it’s an uphill battle.