Chinese economist, Xie Zuoshi, has shocked many people after he suggested polygamy as a solution to China’s rising problem of gender imbalance. Zuoshi, who is an economics professor at Zheijing University of Finance and Economics sparked a digital backlash after he advocated polyandry in his blog post, which has now been removed as reported by The New York Times .
“No one is forcing anyone to accept ‘one wife many husbands!,” was one of his defence statements after the backlash. Nevertheless the news about the usually frowned upon solution has gone viral.
Zuoshi wrote on his post that legalising marriage between two men would also be a good idea. By 2020 China is estimated to have a whopping number of 30 million bachelors. Reportedly birth control policies have limited many families to reproduce only one child since 1979 . Culturally a male child gets more preference, but many still opt for an illegal sex selective abortion which has contributed to the gender imbalance.
According to The New York Times , Zuoshi’s standpoint was completely economical in nature. According to him, in China, the poor men find it difficult to start a family and thereby die of old age without having any descendants.
“I don’t deny the fact of 30 million guanggun (bare branches), but I deny that this must lead to severe social problems,” he wrote.
Just like a shortage of goods raises its price to such a high level that only the rich ones can afford them, something similar has happened in China, only in this case it is the women. This can be solved (economically) if two men share a wife.
“With so many guanggun, women are in short supply and their value increases. But that doesn’t mean the market can’t be adjusted. The guanggun problem is actually a problem of income. High- income men can find a woman because they can pay a higher price. What about low-income men? One solution is to have several take a wife togethe r . That’s not just my weird idea. In some remote, poor places, brothers already marry the same woman, and they have a full and happy life,” he wrote.
Polyandry has been an ancient practice in China in the poverty stricken parts of the country to avoid division of property.
“Because I promoted the idea that we should allow poor men to marry the same woman to solve the problem of 30 million guanggun, I’ve been endlessly abused. People have even telephoned my university to harass me. These people have groundlessly accused me of promoting immoral and unethical ideas.
