SHANGHAI (SCMP): A Chinese scholar has triggered a public backlash for claiming that a women who have 10 children can live until they are 100 years old.
The comment from an anonymous professor in Inner Mongolia, northern China, went viral in a video clip circulating on mainland social media at the end of December, according to a report by Daxiang News.
“After giving birth to a child, you will be blessed by God. It will let you live longer,” he said during a classroom talk to students.
“Some women are successful in their career, but their longevity is short. They are unlike those grandmas in villages who have eight, or 10 kids, and usually can live up to 90 or even 100 years old,” the scholar added.
“Those grandmas generally do not have any major diseases. There is a low possibility of them getting sick,” he said.
The name of the university he works at was not released in the report.
The professor is said to have also worked at a hospital as a doctor, earning 300,000 yuan (US$41,000) a year.
The story provoked a frenzied discussion on mainland social media, with many people denouncing the scholar.
“Do you have scientific evidence to support your point of view?” asked one netizen.
“Don’t you know there is a risk for a woman giving birth. Are those women who die during labour blessed by God?” said another angry online observer.
“Are they mad pushing us to have kids? The cost of raising children is so high and it is tiring for a parent to educate a kid. Anyway, I have one child now and I will not have more, whatever the experts or the government says,” she added.
China is in the grip of an ageing crisis and many young people are reluctant to get married or have children.
The country’s population shrank in 2022 for the first time in 60 years. It fell again in 2023, declining by 2.08 million, with a record low birth rate of 6.39 births per 1,000 people.
The authorities have tried various methods to solve the problem,including giving out cash awards and tax cuts, but their efforts appear to have been in vain.
In December, Wang Xianju, a professor at Renmin University in Beijing, landed in hot water after he asked a visiting Kazakh diplomat how to make Chinese women “obediently and submissively” have children. - SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
