When she was pregnant, Zhao Xiaohong kept her fingers crossed that her baby would be a girl. Her husband, a businessman from Henan, agreed with her even though he comes from a rural family.

    “Daughters are sweet and considerate,” Ms. Zhao said. “She is my sweetheart for life, unlike boys who might drift away from the family after they get their first girlfriend.” Their daughter, Xiaohan, is now two. 

    Like Ms. Zhao and her husband, many couples in China, especially in urban areas, are ignoring the traditional preference for boys. They think babies are a gift and girls are just as good, if not better, than boys. 

    Figures released by the State Population and Family Planning Commission at the end of May show attitudes could be slowly changing. The number of newborn males for every 100 newborn females fell to 119.45 last year, down from 120.56 in 2008, the first decline in five years. 

    The natural sex ratio should be about 103 to 107 males per 100 females at birth, but the gap widened after the one-child policy was introduced three decades ago to curb population growth. Parents wanted to make sure that their only child was a boy to carry on the family name.

    Yuan Xin, a demographer at Nankai University, said it was widely believed that the primary cause of the widening sex ratio at birth was sex-selective abortions. Another reason might be that some parents did not register their first baby girl, leaving the quota for the second child in case it was a boy. 

    “Those born in the 1980s, who make up most new parents now, do not seem to care about the sex of the baby,” he said. Mr. Yuan said another factor was the improving social welfare system, which made parents less dependent on their children when they were old. 

    Ms. Zhao said she did not care about a boy to carry on the family name. “Do you know how much more expensive it is to raise a boy? I am supposed to save money for him to get a house and get married. The burden is too much.” She said.

    Her own father’s desire for a male heir is typical among elderly Chinese. “I was worried who would take care of me when I was old,” he said. 

    He now stays in Shanghai with Zhao Xiaohong or with her sister in Wuxi, Jiangsu, who also gave birth to a girl, to help raise his granddaughters. “I don’t have a son but it seems staying with my daughters now is not such a bad idea,” he said with a laugh. 

    Source: South China Morning Post

 内地夫妇不再重男轻女

       赵小红（音）怀孕时，她祈求上天赐给她一个女儿。她的丈夫是一位来自河南的商人，也想要女儿，尽管他来自农村。

       赵说：“女儿可爱、体贴，是生活中的小甜心，而儿子只要有了对象，就会渐渐与父母疏远。”他们的女儿小涵（音）现在两岁。

       与赵小红夫妇一样，内地许多年轻夫妇，特别是城市里的年轻夫妻，现在都对想要儿子的传统表示不屑。他们认为，孩子是上天赐予的礼物，生女儿如果不是更好，至少也不比生儿子差。

       国家人口家庭计划统计署五月底公布的数字表明，中国人对生儿生女的态度正在缓慢发生改变。去年，新生儿男女比例失调的现象5年来首次得到缓解，男女比例由2008年的120.56比100降至119.45比100。

       新生儿正常的性别比应在103比100至107比100之间，但是在内地30年前实行独生子女政策以遏制人口增长后，这一差距不断扩大。父母都希望确保他们惟一的孩子是男孩，以延续家族的香火。

       南开大学人口统计学家袁新（音）说，人们普遍认为，新生儿男女比例扩大的主要原因是选择性堕胎造成的。另外一个原因可能是因为一些头胎生女孩的父母不给这名女婴上户口，将生育指标留给有可能是男孩的第二胎。

       他说：“那些上世纪80年代出生的人现在开始生育子女，似乎不那么在乎自己孩子的性别。”还有一个因素是社会福利体系的改进，使父母不再那么依赖子女来养老送终。

       赵小红说，她不在乎是否有男孩来延续家族姓氏。她说：“要知道养一个儿子多费钱啊！要为他存钱买房，娶媳妇。这个负担太重了。”

       她的父亲曾渴望有儿子，这在中国老年人中非常典型。他说：“以前我曾担心谁来给我养老。”

       现在，他与赵小红一起生活在上海，或去无锡小女儿的家帮忙带外孙，而小女儿生的也是女儿。他笑着说：“虽然我没有儿子，但与女儿一起生活似乎也不错。”