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Global
Edition - Today's top story: 'I almost lost my will to live':
preference for sons is leaving young women in China exploited
and abused View
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Global
Edition | 4 September 2023 | |
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Whether
you’re the “golden child” or the “problem child”, anyone with
siblings will be familiar with the rivalry and competition
that comes with growing up together – and it doesn’t
necessarily end when you form relationships and families of
your own.
For
many young women in China with brothers, this is made even
harder by the cultural preference for sons and the remnants of
the country’s one-child policy. As researcher
Chihling Liu found in thousands of posts on Chinese social
media, daughters are discriminated against in their own
families, and yet are expected to financially support their
parents and brothers. These expectations, which leave women
socially isolated, under financial pressure and even suicidal,
should be of great concern in a country with a declining birth
rate and huge gender imbalance.
Also
today, read our coverage from Johannesburg
of a fire that killed dozens in the city last week, and
while it might seem like a hassle to get regular COVID
boosters, here’s why older adults should make those
appointments. |
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Avery Anapol
Commissioning Editor,
London | |
aslysun/Shutterstock
Chih-Ling Liu, Lancaster University
Many
young women feel trapped and indebted to their
families. |
South African police officers at the scene of
the burned building in Johannesburg. Luca Sola/AFP via Getty
Images
Richard Ballard, University of the Witwatersrand
Inner
city occupations and shack settlements alike are the
inevitable consequence of the fact that huge populations of
people have to get by without a living wage. |
After winning a third term, Ali Bongo has
been ousted as president of Gabon by a military coup. EPA-EFE/stringer
Folahanmi Aina, Royal United Services Institute
Ali
Bongo is the latest in a string of leaders to be ousted in
military coups since 2020. |
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Dawn ME Bowdish, McMaster University;
Andrew Costa, McMaster University
We
still have much to learn about many aspects of
COVID-19 — including its lingering health effects and
the mechanics of its endless mutations — but we do
know one thing: we can’t let our guard down.
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Paul Lashmar, City, University of London
Some
UK families whose wealth largely derives from the
transatlantic slave trade have agreed to pay
reparations.
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Caroline Smith, University of Westminster
We
can predict hair and eye colour with reasonable
accuracy from DNA, but other characteristics are being
investigated.
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Jorge L. Contreras, University of Utah;
Dave Fagundes, University of Houston Law Center
Publishers
and studios routinely pay large sums to acquire ‘life
story rights.’ Two law scholars explain why the phrase
is misleading.
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Paul Cureton, Lancaster University
The
drones are light, cheap, easy to transport and have
proved to be highly effective as a weapon of war.
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Meisha Lohmann, Binghamton University,
State University of New York
A
lecturer in English literature gets her students to
examine children’s books through the lens of race,
class and
sexuality. | |
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Sent: Monday, September 04, 2023 10:32 AM
Subject: Personal legacy of China's one-child
policy
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