Day: February 20, 2025

“Of course I want to get married,” says Fu, a lorry driver in Yiyang, a far-flung county in Jiangxi province. Once a migrant worker, the 36-year-old returned to the village to live with his ageing parents. They are anxious for him to tie the knot. “But there are few women,” he sighs. The eligible girls around him are all spoken for; others have left to work in cities. The Economist

An ancient Chinese saying states that meng mu san qian: the mother of Mencius, a sage, “moved three times” to find him the right study environment. Tiger mums the world over know the feeling, but few push harder than the Chinese; the game of cat and mouse the Communist Party plays with parents to stop them trying to game the system is legendary. The party has now released new rules to try to stop it. The Economist