China instituted a policy of one-child per family some 27-years ago to rein in population growth. The policy's done that. But it's done something else as well. It's produced a generation with relatively few girls. The Chinese traditionally prefer boys, and many have used ultrasounds and selective abortions to ensure that they have boys. As a result, there are about 40 million more males than females in the one-child generation that's coming of age. And that could create some big problems down the line. Mary Kay Magistad continues our series on China's youth from the northern province of Hebei.
photos: Mary Kay Magistad
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Magistad: These women in Tianchunpu village are gathered around a card table, piled with mahjong tiles. A baby boy sits on one woman's lap, and knocks the tiles around. The women here look startled to see a foreign journalist, and they quickly say that they're not playing mahjong – because that would be gambling, and gambling's illegal.

The mahjong table

Magistad:When I ask them about how villagers here feel about the one-child policy, and about having girls rather than boys, their answers strike a similar tone.

They say, ‘We think boys and girls are just the same.' They claim to know nothing about women having abortions to ensure they have boys. They say no one here would do such a thing. But Hebei province, where this village is located, has one of the highest gender disparities in China . There are about 132 boys born for every hundred girls. The government has painted slogans on the brick walls here and in other nearby villages, telling villagers that girls are as good as boys, and that using ultrasound for gender selection is illegal. Last year, the government shut down or fined hundreds of clinics and hospitals in Hebei that were doing illegal ultrasounds and selective abortions.

Slogan urging villagers not to use ultrasound for "non-medical" purposes

Hao Linna is a senior official at China's National Population and Family Planning Commission. She says, it's not always easy to catch ultrasound practitioners in the act. They're often careful not to say out loud the sex of the fetus:

Hao: "They just show that smiling means boy, or cough means girl. Something like that. You cannot find who is doing these things, particularly. A lot of people are doing these kinds of things underground, in private clinics."

Magistad:The Chinese government is trying to get tough on gender-selective ultra-sounds and abortions, because it knows that the birth of so many more boys than girls could cause serious social problems down the road.

Jackson: "In a normal population, there are 104 or 105 boy babies born for every 100 girl babies. In China today, the figure is 118 or 119."

Magistad:Richard Jackson is a demographer at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

Jackson: "You can really see that that is a direct result of the one-child policy, if you look at the sex ratio by birth order."

Magistad: He says for the first-born child, the ratio is only a little skewed toward boys – 107 to 100. But for the second child born – in rural areas where villagers are allowed to try one more time if their first child is a girl – the ratio is 150 to 100. He says that's because many rural Chinese keep having abortions until they get a boy.

Back in Tianchunpu village, I ask the women whether they have boys or girls. Some have just one child, a son. Almost all who have two or more children had a daughter first. A woman named Ma says she had a daughter, and then two sons – and had to pay hefty fines to have them. She doesn't mind, she says, because now her kids have grown up, and she lives with one of her sons:

Ma: "When I get old, I'll rely on my son. My daughter's gotten married and lives in another family, so if I didn't send a message to her, she wouldn't even know I was dying."

Magistad: Actually, she admits it's not as bad as that – her daughter comes to see her every week or two. A woman here named Shi, in her 40s, has two daughters.

Shi: "when I got pregnant for the second time, my family had to borrow the equivalent of a year's income to pay the fine. And then it turned out to be a girl."

Magistad: But she may have the last laugh. Her daughters are now young migrant workers in Beijing, and regularly send money home – just like sons are meant to do.

Siblings from rural China - the boy is the youngest child

Xie Lihua is the founder of Rural Women magazine. She says rural women and girls are still treated as second-class citizens. But she says China's massive wave of migration to the cities has had a profound effect on the status of rural women – including bringing down a rate of suicide among them that used to be the highest in the world:

Xie: "Women go out of the village and view the world, so they see more options for themselves, so life doesn't seem so hopeless. And then they pass these influences on to their family and children. "

Magistad: Xie says migration has also helped exposed rural men to new ideas about how to treat their wives and daughters. Still, China's preference for boys dies hard, even in some unexpected quarters.

Hebei woman with her son

Magistad: This is the Maple Women's Hotline in Beijing. The director here is Hou Zhiming, who has a 27-year-old daughter.

Hou: "My husband and I feel that she is very close to us. But think about it -- why should I be trying to figure out the advantages of having a girl? It's because we do feel something's lacking. We have to persuade ourselves that a girl is good, because we don't have a boy."

Magistad: Hou says it may be irrational, but it's still true, even among many intellectuals, even in urban China, that having a boy is just more prestigious. But there are signs that this is changing.

Outside a school, where high school students are taking their college entrance exam, Liu Changquan waits for his daughter. He's obviously proud of her. But he says, she almost wasn't born:

Liu: "When my wife was pregnant, she went to the hospital to get an ultrasound and found out she was carrying a girl. She wanted to get an abortion, and try for a boy. But I stopped her. There are more boys than girls now, and it will be an issue in the future. Anyway, I think it's good to have a daughter. A son-in-law is like a half son. And a boy who might be lazy in his own family might be diligent in his wife's home."

Magistad: That's assuming he can find a wife. There are now an estimated 40 million more males than females in the one-child generation – and the oldest are now in their mid-20s.

Some of these young men are gathered in an English classroom in Beijing. They joke about how competitive it's becoming for men of their generation. One offers his opinion:

Student: "If you are poor, if you don't have any abilities, maybe most of girls look down on you. But if you are very powerful, I think it's a good way to attract your lover. "

Magistad:That may sound like male bravado, but it may also end up being true. Women can always marry up, especially if they're in short supply – but poor rural men, with little or no education, are likely to lose out. Already, in rural China, bachelor villagers are springing up, and kidnapping or buying brides from places like North Korea and Vietnam has been going on for years. Even then, some rural men still lose out. Seventeen-year-old Liang Shan, in Hebei province says, he's worried:

Liang: In my village, some of the guys a little older than me are having problems finding wives —especially the ones who dropped out of school early."

Magistad: Those drop-outs, and others like them, may eventually become a problem for the Chinese government...young men who were brought into the world as the great hopes of their poor rural families, but who end up without prospects or domesticating influences, – and perhaps frustrated enough to add to the already considerable unrest erupting across the Chinese countryside.

For The World, I'm Mary Kay Magistad, Hebei province, China.