An article in the Economist reports that Asian women are becoming less inspired by the idea of marriage…

A lot of Asians are not marrying later. They are not marrying at all. Almost a third of Japanese women in their early 30s are unmarried; probably half of those will always be. Over one-fifth of Taiwanese women in their late 30s are single; most will never marry. In some places, rates of non-marriage are especially striking: in Bangkok, 20% of 40-44-year old women are not married; in Tokyo, 21%; among university graduates of that age in Singapore, 27%. So far, the trend has not affected Asia’s two giants, China and India. But it is likely to, as the economic factors that have driven it elsewhere in Asia sweep through those two countries as well…

This reinforces the view that population decline among developed nations is as serious – perhaps more serious – an issue as overpopulation elsewhere. But if Chinese and Indian women became less inclined to mate, marry and become mothers it’ll serve to aggravate another consequence of those nations’ intimidating levels of sex-selective abortion: it’ll leave millions of blokes lonely and frustrated. As Mara Hvistendahl details in her book Unnatural Selection…

Hvistendahl raises the possibility that with so many surplus men – up to a fifth of men will be single in northwestern India by 2020 – large parts of the world could become like America’s wild west, with excess testosterone leading to raised levels of crime and violence.

“Historically, societies in which men substantially outnumber women are not nice places to live,” Hvistendahl writes. Already, the relative shortage of women in countries like China and Taiwan has helped create new markets in women.

Ever spent time at a bar while all the women are dancing? Imagine millions of the sort of guys who congregate there.

This situation has already fathered a cynical and often exploitative approach to partnership…

They include arranged wedding agencies that set up marriages between South Korean men and foreigners, often women from poorer nearby countries like Vietnam, that now account for 11% of all marriages in South Korea.

There is also a booming trade in trafficking of women for prostitution out of Vietnam and a growing practice of child marriage in China, where wealthier families secure wives for their sons early by effectively buying young girls for their sons.

This imbalance will, I fear, make relationships between men and women so bleakly cynical that it’ll make Houellebecq seem like Barbara Cartland. If you’re looking to get rich you could do worse than going to Asia and lecturing on “game”.

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