China promotes education drive to make boys more 'manly'
bbc.com
bbc.com
The linked notice is titled 关于政协十三届全国委员会第三次会议第4404号（教育类410号）提案答复的函 教师提案〔2020〕475号 http://www.moe.gov.cn/jyb_xxgk/xxgk_jyta/jyta_jiaoshisi/2021...
About the Political Consultative Conference's 13th National Committee's third session, answer to the 4404th proposal (410th on education). Teaching proposal no. 475 (2020)
Yes, no doubts about its ultimate goal indeed.
The answer begins:
您提出的《关于防止男性青少年女性化的提案》收悉，现将涉及教育部业务部分答复如下：
Having received and read your "Proposal on the prevention of the feminization of male youth", the answers to the parts concerning the Ministry of Education are as follows:
(Then there's a bunch of blabla about improving school sports and whatnot, without any references to gender.)
So someone (who?) was concerned about feminization and asked the Ministry of Education to do something about that and they responded.
The BBC seems to have mistaken the title mentioned in the response for a statement of the Ministry of Education's official policy.
Maybe I should submit a "Proposal to replace Google Translate by fluent Chinese speakers" to the BBC so they can publish a headline "BBC to improve its reporting on China" but I'm not holding my breath.
They make proposals on various aspects of life in China. Those proposals aren't official policies.
BBC should really have done a better job here.
It is also funny to see the top thread a few minutes ago quickly developed into something like military might and "China must be stopped".
Now, there are many things that do, but a more prudent and balanced approach with more research would serve the BBC well.
The BBC has been flogging SJW agendas for a while now. Even though they're a state organ they need clicks just like anyone else -- and this gets traffic.
Mix in some good ole China xenophobia and voila, one of the most active posts on HN.
The formula works.
Having lived in Europe for more than a decade I however, did find the english title very alarming and worrying, even while reading the same chinese text have no such feeling at all.... language works in different context I suppose...
The other thing to note, although its not particularly interesting, is that there's going to be a media bias against china from the west in general.
The US Army also tests such things as sperm count and has seen a rapid decline.
So the real solution is less pollution :)
I do not think they are doing this for shits and giggles. They invest a lot overseas and must be aware that one day, one of their client countries will rebel and will need to be subdued militarily to protect the investments and dissuade others from going down the same road.
The question is what is the rest of the world going to do. So far we seem to be mostly ignoring this yet-soft development, maybe because the idea of having a Cold War 2.0 with a major industrial power is really uncomfortable.
Most of the world probably dislikes China as much as they dislike the USA. If anything, they will be indifferent to the conflict, unless they happen to be in a "proxy-conflict" zone.
https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/british-carrier-strike-group...
I can't imagine, given the history between the two countries, that the Chinese are that delighted to have the Royal Navy active in their part of the world again.
A Chinese destroyer already sailed through the Channel in 2019 on its way to an event in St Petersburg.
At the end of the day the UK of the 21st century cannot keep up with the China of the 21st century. The Chinese economy is already 6x times larger than the UK's, with a population 20x larger. At some point the Chinese Navy will be able to align 10 aircraft carriers for every British Navy one if they want to.
The big question is: what can we do, really? The media in the West are quite frank about what is going on: China is a totalitarian state with all consequences. The politicians, though, seem terrified and bend over backwards in order not to offend the red dragon. There are small exceptions but in general China freaks out whenever anyone significant meets the Dalai Lama, for example.
A good example is Prague. Czechia is a tiny country in Central Europe with pro-China central government. However, the local government of its capital has a more free attitude and Beijing is getting furious each time the major of Prague meets the dissidents and so on. But most politicians in most countries are far less brave. Also they may realize the stakes are higher and higher.
I say all this as an EU citizen. For all its faults, the US is the one ally we have that could possibly coordinate an appropriate response (no, not military - financial, political and social, but also military if need be) and it's a tragedy that the US is just ... giving up.
Second, history is what shapes cultures and people's views of the world. You cannot discuss and hope to make sense of what's going on in a country without understanding its history. The BLM movement, arguments about links to slavery, China's international policy, just to name a few, are all stemming directly from events that occurred in the past and continue to have an impact to this day.
And lastly, there is nothing wrong with nationalism when it means defending your own people and sovereignty of your own country. That's what all countries do and in fact is the basis of the existence of countries.
Welp, I'm out.
If you look at most of the pop culture that comes out from East Asia, the typical male archetype seems to be gentle, boyish looking men who are chivalrous and act cute at the same time. Typical masculine features like beards are generally considered unattractive on males. I guess, some people might not like it.
[1] The Legendary Hero Bercouli in SAO and Sakonji Urokodaki in Demon Slayer are two that immediately spring to mind.
... doing what countries run by a dictator tend to do. I don't think we fully understand how much Xi Jinping has changed the PRC. The Chinese system was already autocratic, but Xi turned it into full-blown dictatorship. There are no balances to his power, there is no limit to his rule, there is no incentive for anyone in China to oppose anything he does or to develop alternative political lines. This situation requires an increasing amount of chest-thumping to justify itself.
> must be aware that one day, one of their client countries will rebel
A lot of these client countries are not even in Asia, and the Chinese have never been "expeditionary". Their force projection is typically limited to their close interests. The PRC leadership has traditionally played the long game, but justifying a dictatorship has costs that must be paid for; Xi needs to show gains in a much more overt way than his predecessors. That's basically what it is. From what I can see, their only major objective is still to get the South-East off American control, and that will be it.
> The question is what is the rest of the world going to do.
You're already seeing it: periodic waves of anti-Chinese action in civilian fields. Full-on cold-war seems fundamentally impossible in a world where most "Western" money effectively runs on items manufactured almost-exclusively in China - which is not just "a major industrial power", it's effectively unique in whole sectors and dominant in others. "We" will continue with the tit-for-tat and occasional offensive like on 5G.
If you go by what they say, it seems that their major objective is Taiwan.
The problem is that three decades of US adventurism in the Middle East have left “us” without the moral high ground to oppose them.
Most of China's power is in its coastal densely populated cities that are not possible to defend in any meaningful way.
That said, testosterone rates actually have been falling for a while now [1][2], and 'that's a thing'. Scientifically.
Also, we spend way too much time indoors as a species and there may possibly be a gendered aspect to it.
If we can talk all day about special needs, issues and accommodation for women, there's not reason we can't do so for men.
Never an athlete myself, and loathing the American focus on Collegiate sports - I've actually come to admire it. Maybe not to the 'they call get full ride' kind of admiration, but rather, a respect for the fact that physical vitality is part of our essential being.
1 hour of PT/sports per day should be standard literally all the way through life: Elementary, HS, College, integrated into the Workplace.
Just getting people moving would fundamentally change so many things. Probably ever aspect of life would improve, and if we want to make it a 'men's issue' I'll bet that rates of ADD, attention span etc. improve, as an unscientific hunch.
Edit: It's not a 'hunch' - physical activity will improve ADD [3], attention span [4].
[1] https://www.icenews.is/2010/05/17/testosterone-levels-decrea...
[2] https://www.reuters.com/article/health-testosterone-levels-d...
[3] https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/019394591664995...
[4] https://www.unh.edu/healthyunh/blog/2013/07/recent-study-tie...
At the heart of the issue is the perception that young men lack physical exercise. This government suggestion is receiving a lot of criticism inside China. Chinese netizens don't have anything against encouraging kids to exercise, but they are incensed that it's sold as a way to make boys more manly. https://radiichina.com/masculine-feminization-teenagers/
One child policy ruined the life of hundreds of millions of men.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/12/101208125813.h...
High incomes leads to better spending on food leading to more cattle production leading to more soy use and more dairy consumption, which leads to more intake of oestrogen in water, leading to lower testosterone counts in consumers, leading to lower fertility rates.
Nowadays we do things more civilized by posing on social media with gym bods and expensive cars and other displays of sexual fitness. Trying to lure a mate instead of taking one.
Unfortunately, the numbers are what they are: a ~30 million gender imbalance. So however you turn it there's going to be 30 million men without a wife/family no matter what they do. Not a good thing if you want society to remain peaceful.
So they either import more women (via force or promise of a better living standard), or they get rid of the excess men (via war), or they suppress them with heavy policing and entertainment doping until the gender imbalance fades out over the next generation or so.
Almost by definition, a manly activity is one where you won't meet many women.
I don't go to the gym for the wife, but she sure appreciates it.
You’ve got the wrong gender.
Killed lots of girl embrios and babies and ruined life of men :(
Where he is leading to, no-one truly wants to go.
I don't believe that, any more than I believed that America would just get another Trump, after Trump.