It’s singles day in China, Friday November 11, 2011, and Lonely Hearts parties have been organized in various cities so that singletons can cast off their single status.

In a culture like China’s, where marriage at a young age has long been the norm, mainstream society continues to attach great importance to husbands and family. Women are expected to marry early and give birth to a (boy) child to carry on the family name.  For older generations, the choice to stay single is considered “unfilial”.

So what does China call this growing population of women who are becoming aware of their rights, including the right to choose a husband in on their own terms, like love and marriage?  They’re called  “Shengnu” which translates to “leftover women”.

In fact, the Chinese Ministry of Education included the term in its official lexicon in 2007 and it refers to the urban single woman above age 27.

This in a country where the sex ratio at birth has increasingly skewed toward men since the 1980s, and because of the country’s one child per person policy and related issues  (aborting little girls), male to female births were 118.06 to 100 in 2010.

In a survey of 30,000 men, more than 90 percent said women should marry before 27 to avoid becoming unwanted, according to a survey conducted by the All-China Women’s Federation.

But the question is, unwanted by whom?  We will never understand why women continued to be valued because of their romantic relationships or lack thereof with men.  What do you think?  Is this okay with you?