China asks: Are its young men manlyenough?

Zhang Mei Lian enrolled her 16-year-old son Zhang Jin Jieming into all-boys classes out of concern he was becoming

too feminized. Photo: Lara Farrar/MCT

SHANGHAI — Zhang Mei Lian is worried that her 16-year-old son doesn’t know how to be

a man. She's worried that he isn’t athletic enough, and that he doesn’t know how to repair

things such as computers or a broken light. Like other Chinese mothers, she's worried that

he’s falling behind his female classmates in school.

“Our current education system is really bad for boys,” Zhang said. “Boys should be strong.

Otherwise, they are all turning into some kind of feminized boys. Boys should be acting like

boys.”

Zhang isn’t the only one who’s concerned about the masculinity of young Chinese men.

Much as in some segments of the United States, where boys’ falling academic

achievement has been the subject of a host of studies, China is worried about whether

rapid social change is leaving boys behind.

“We tend to describe it as the feminization of men or lack of manliness,” said Li Wendao,

the co-author of a book titled “Save the Boys.” “Society is concerned because if the issue

is not resolved, its influence will be big on society’s development.”

By McClatchy Foreign Staff, adapted by Newsela on 10.06.13

Word Count 970

Girls Outpacing Boys In School

Just as in the United States, one of the main concerns is that girls are outperforming boys

in school. According to “Save the Boys,” Chinese girls outscore boys on college entrance

exams, are more likely to go to college, and are winning more scholarships. A study in

Zhejiang province, near Shanghai, found that 60 percent of primary school boys thought

that girls were smarter than they were.

Experts blame the country’s education system, which stresses rote memorization over a

more creative, free-thinking way of teaching. Parents and teachers force children here from

an early age to memorize a curriculum geared toward helping them pass a number of

national exams for high school and college.

Outside the classroom, they’re forced to take numerous private lessons in subjects ranging

from English to physics and to study at night, on the weekends and during holidays. Girls,

these experts say, are better able to handle such studying practices. Boys, they argue,

need more free time to be rambunctious.

The structured environment leads to behavioral problems in junior and senior high school.

Some experts think it's caused by a childhood spent being punished by parents for being

disobedient or getting poor grades.

“There is no question boys here do not know how to act like men,” said Mark Kurban, a

physics teacher at a private high school in Shanghai. “Boys tend to be lazier than the girls.

They tend to be those who are more distracted in class. They just really want to play

basketball the whole time in school, maybe because they did not have a chance to play

like boys."

Boys-Only Classes For Tools And Repairs

One high school in Shanghai is trying to address the problem. Last fall, the public

Shanghai No. 8 Senior High School began offering experimental boys-only classes, which

include wilderness training, using tools, boxing and repairing electrical appliances. During

the summer, students were required to take part in a military boot camp, in which they had

to scale walls and jump out of windows.

Lu Qisheng, the headmaster of the school, said another challenge facing Chinese boys

stemmed from the country’s one-child policy, which was instituted more than three

decades ago to control the population.

Boy babies were favored over girls, and families with male children tended to be incredibly

overprotective, spoiling their single male children. Society now refers to these children as

“little emperors.” This, combined with the fact that most boys are raised only by their

mothers because their fathers are out working and rarely home, has resulted in males who

expect special treatment and lack a sense of responsibility.

“This has weakened their ability to live independently,” Lu said. “And also weakened their

ability to make choices themselves.”

Part of the concerns about boys stem from cultural conflicts. Some people here blame the

popularity of television shows and movies from South Korea that portray men as skinny

with beautifully delicate features for changing ideas about what it is to be an attractive

man.

“I think Chinese women, especially young women in cities, some of them share this kind of

preference,” said Song Geng, an associate professor at the University of Hong Kong who’s

the author of the book “Men and Masculinities in Contemporary China.” “This gives rise to

feminized male pop stars and similar images on TV.”

Sensitive Boys Not Seen As Sissies

The male grooming industry is exploding in China. More men are buying beauty products,

even makeup. Some young men say they consider it a compliment to be mistaken as gay.

There are historical roots for this conflict. In plays from China’s dynastic period, gentle

male scholars — instead of warriors — were the ones who won women’s hearts. “The

sword-wielding guy never does,” said Kam Louie, the author of “Theorizing Chinese

Masculinity: Society and Gender in China.”

This notion of the sensitive male disappeared after the last dynasty fell in the early part of

the 20th century, however. Men were forced to cut their long hair. When the communists

came to power in 1949, soldiers — or strong men — who could defend their country

became the Communist Party’s primary depiction of the ideal male.

Now, however, Louis said, the pendulum is swinging back toward a broader definition of

what makes a man a man. “There is a traditional background in the Chinese case, which

makes the revival easier,” he said. “It is not seen as being a sissy.”

But it still produces conflict.

“China is still a patriarchal society,” said Li Yinhe, one of China’s pre-eminent gender-study

scholars. “Women traditionally should not be leaders,” she said, describing the culture. “In

the family, women’s role is to assist men. The Chinese saying is that the man leads and the

woman follows.”

Quiz

1 In "Girls Outpacing Boys In School," the article structures its argument that the current

education system is responsible for a decline in male masculinity by:

(A) stating an opinion

(B) using detailed images

(C) providing an anecdote

(D) making a comparison

2 Select the paragraph from the article that shows the effect of harsh discipline on children.

3 The article gives all of the following as reasons why Chinese boys are having trouble growing

into men EXCEPT:

(A) Young Chinese women like men to look like the ones they see in Korean

shows and films.

(B) China is a matriarchal society where women control politics and leadership.

(C) Girls are outscoring boys on college entrance exams and winning more

scholarships.

(D) Chinese mothers raise their sons on their own and spoil them.

4 What was an effect of the fall of the last Chinese dynasty?

(A) Men who were poets and scholars could no longer win women's hearts.

(B) Sword-wielding men were no longer attractive to women.

(C) Girls began winning more places in universities.

(D) China began its one-child policy and boys became spoiled.