Women who are obsessed with the " Gender Watch " notes, with their motivational and environmental implications, will be sharing their gender-related current affairs observations from short stories. Yang Chanlan in China shocked all walks of life, let us crawl rural women's early marriage, as well as in the family as a "left-behind women," the great pressure, the original became the ants, not only economic poverty, but also mental difficulties. (Extended reading:"The topic of pregnancy" 19 years old, I became a mother )

"Yang Chanlan" has recently become the hottest topic in Chinese tennis, she is the mother of four children, followed by grandmother, father, husband, four children, the family lives in Kangle County, Gansu Province, the village of the aunt. On the evening of August 26, Yang Chanlan the head and body of a four-child with an axe after his house, the oldest six-Year-old, who was preparing to go to school, and then a five-year-old twin and a three-year-old daughter.

When Yang Chanlan found that the child still had a breath, and forced them to drink the herbicide, and finally took the pesticide to death. She crossed the heart to commit suicide, to the next to the crying grandmother Yang Lanfang said: "You this time to save me, can not save." 」

And the older daughter in the crowd arrived, so open their eyes and smiled at everyone. Ruzhui husband Li Keingben alone outside the pig farm work, learned that the news back home, see the big daughter still have breath, then hold her rush the village, but on the halfway, daughter broke gas.

Yang Chanlan, 28, died in a hospital in Lanzhou after the first-aid failed. She had never left the countryside, had come so far, and had stayed here after her death. A few days later, Li Keying the ashes of his wife into the river, and then in the woods not far from home, drank a poisonous insecticide, a mixture of phosphorus.

They were dead, and the world was still working. Reporter came to the fast disintegration of the soil bad room, Kang side window glass has six, the upper left corner less than half, the soil on the windowsill basking in their own species of beans, surviving father and grandmother still in this life. Everybody's asking Yang Chanlan what's wrong? The tragedy of the family sounds appalling, and the good mother who was praised suddenly changed her face. Seemingly hard-hearted manners, but return to the Yang Chanlan of life, but is the tears of the Times. (same field Gayon: you have not imagined the feminine sadness!) "I need the Pill because ..."


( photo Source: BBC)

Yang Chanlan's Sketch of life: Early marriages in the countryside girl

Growth in the rural Yang Chanlan, "One day the school door has not been in", Sister Yang Chanqing Also, the village has not been to learn the young, only their two sisters. Almost illiterate Yang Chanlan, who entered marriage at the age of 19, is not uncommon in China's rural areas. Although in China, the male legal age of marriage is 22 years, the female is 20 years old, but the violation of the provisions of what punishment, the law does not specify, so the phenomenon of early marriage is widespread, everywhere are more than 30 years old to become grandparents.

Rural areas generally believe that, as long as the new people to do a feast, even if it became a pro, formally became a husband and wife, the legal eligibility to wait until the legal age to register a good. Marriage is a big event, a lot of rural families have to boys in the town before the wedding, first put into practice, so as to avoid leaving home but for the possibility of playing a bachelor, later find a good family to conclude marriage.

The "one-child policy" and "patriarchal" tradition have created a serious imbalance in the sex ratio, with the latest figures showing that there are 33.6 million more men than women in China. And men in the marriage market insecurity, afraid of their inability to afford the family's imagination.

"In some poor areas, early marriages seem to be a safeguard, a guarantee of not being a bachelor for life." "The South China Morning Post website quotes The Beijing News newspaper as saying. Early marriage and childbirth in the countryside appears normal but, fear becomes the other people's eyes of "cock silk" (refers to the young people from the countryside into the city, similar to Taiwan's known as Lu Snakes), the best way to solve the problem is to get married first, so the phenomenon of early marriage is widespread.

For rural men, if the 20-year-old is still not married, is late, "good girls have been singled out by others." The traditional idea of family and family, created the bottom of men's anxiety, afraid of their own conditions are not good enough, not to stand the industry at the same time, even more become home.


(Photo: Yang Chanlan's father and grandmother)

But the men and women in the countryside entered the marriage early, but brought about a vicious circle of fate. Early marriage brings the burden of the family more aggravating, income can only rely on the husband to earn outside work, in the economic and social disadvantage of them, often can only do the most tired hard work, holding a meager income to support the family.

On the other hand, wives who leave home often have to watch their children at home and become "left-behind women". These rural girls have become mothers before they grow up. "Eat, Feed the children, watch TV, Feed the children ..." became their daily life, no other support system, Roo, the days of their lives are always under pressure.

The husband outside to work to earn money, early marriage Yang Chanlan usually is a helpless housewife, the village only can say a few words of the Tang, life buried in the countryside she had to the Tang Gu said: "Want to go out waves (meaning for distraction), do not want to be at home." "But the reality let her nowhere to escape, Yang Chanlan family is such a microcosm of society, income only enough to maintain basic food and clothing, even after the birth of twins, family planning of more than 2000 yuan fine, can not be paid." At the same time, because of not paying the fine, Yang Chanlan can even have their own children at home and cut the umbilical cord for their children. (Recommended reading:"The topic of pregnancy" from the backpack to the back of the child, small parents a mile road )

Yang Chanlan is not a case: rural women who say goodbye to the world by committing suicide

With a huge despair, the end of their own life, such a story, in many rural areas staged. China's "Half Moon" 2004, the 11th issue of a "suicide intervention: for 280,000 lives per year," the report said that the average annual suicide deaths in China is 287,000 people, accounting for the total number of deaths in the country 3.6%. And the rural suicide rate is 3 times times higher than the city, among which the female suicide rate is higher than the male 25%, rural women have become the highest proportion of the population of suicide. According to the World Health Organization, rural China is the only place in the world where women have a higher suicide rate than men.

The husband is working outside and his wife is living alone with her children, which is the main family pattern in the countryside today. Not only do they have to do farm work, they also have a great responsibility to take care of the whole family. In addition to the heavy load of physical strength, the mental pressure is enormous to make people unbearable. Left-behind women can not have a quiet and good life, physical and psychological long-term in a high-pressure state.


(Picture: Yang's soil Bad house)

The problem of the suicide of the disadvantaged women embodies the gap between poverty alleviation and mental poverty alleviation, both materially and spiritually, vulnerable to the fall of the people.

In the Yang Chanlan incident, the implementation of pro-poor policies was incomplete. Her home is the village's most broken soil bad house, the wall is mud paste, the main house window was the old newspaper at random cover, concubine although there are windows, but it broke a big hole. But in such a poor, they have been abolished the eligibility of low-income income, December 2013, in the dynamic management of rural subsistence, by the masses to review the household failed, because in the household survey, Yang home income of 36585.76 yuan, per capita income higher than the rural minimum standard.

The qualification of the lowest-subsistence minimum is quite rough in the procedure, only the income is used as the measure, and the villagers vote to decide whether to enjoy the minimum subsistence, but not the actual situation of the disadvantaged family, and the comprehensive counseling method is given. And such a significant impact, but because a eight of the illiterate, there is no person to communicate, the cancellation of the eligibility notice posted three days, Yang House did not raise objections.

In addition to the economic poverty alleviation has been a major mistake, the spirit of poverty alleviation is increasingly urgent, the two should be complementary to each other, can not be monorail. Like the 28-year-old Yang Chanlan, who has never been to school, has lived in closed villages, and because of early marriage, the whole life is tied together with the family, for such women, how they should escape from the prison of life?

"Empowering is more important than literacy", this is the slogan of the Beijing Peasant Women's Cultural development center and the Women's Federation Cooperative Literacy. The spirit of poverty alleviation requires the support of the group so that the disadvantaged can seek support when needed. However, in the vast rural areas of China, the social support network is absent, so that women often only to fight alone, do not know where to seek help, can only guard the day-to-day anxiety.

Yang Chanlan Incident touched the women's organization "Peasant Girl", the team is currently planning to establish " Love Union ", sow the seeds of change in the rural network and play the role of everyone, so long as there are signs of suicide, the Commissioner will immediately send a helping hand and let the psychologist follow up to save lives and let women know how the present predicament can be improved.

Just like an article called "It's the bloom of my hometown", the author Tenggang describes the relationship between pesticides and the countryside: "I see pesticide bottles always think of death." My friends and relatives in the country said they had an impulse to see pesticides, an impulse to drink it all. It is strange that pesticides are Tezuka, but in the old home, pesticides are not only used to Tezuka, it is becoming more and more the life of home people indispensable things. 」

Tragedy is not only the story of Yang Chanlan family, but the collective narration in rural China. Yang Chanlan before he died to Grandma said: "You can not understand", this sentence is the endless black hole, the reality of constantly sucking the hope that the face of every day, but only greater pain.

Yang Chanlan once in her husband's home to the town after work, so a person sitting at the door of the house, tears keep slipping, crying to Grandma said: "Wheat ripe, who will do?" I but to come alone. " After marriage, she has four children, not only to take care of the children, but also a person to cultivate 17.3 acres of land, the husband is not the General Assembly to make money, the burden of the whole family almost all pressure on her a person.

According to the French national radio, the survey shows that the plight of women left behind in rural China is mainly in the areas of high labor intensity, great mental stress, single cultural life and difficult development. Because not only to engage in farm work, but also to bear the upbringing of children, supporting elders and many other responsibilities, 48.9% of the left-behind women said physically unbearable. And the husband long out of work, his wife at home "widow", to a person to carry the entire family, but also to women in the spirit of the feeling of great pressure.


(Photo: Yang's Kitchen)

Women have to empower and not to have parental authority. The weak should be equal, not the right to poverty.

We are always celebrating motherhood, but we forget the tears behind the countless moving stories, and the ideal mothers present are mostly family-oriented, surrounded by children. But sometimes, love can't save everything. People will only praise you for being strong, but cannot look directly at your weakness.

When Yang Chanlan was 6 years old, her mother could not bear the poverty of her family, so she left her family. Since the age of 10, the whole family's work has been wrapped by her. and 19 years old after marriage for 7 consecutive years in the rearing of newborn, Yang Chanlan once to the Tang gu sigh: "Early know not too early to marry, more than 20 years old again knot." "It can be seen that the plight of rural women is not only focused on the economic level of poverty alleviation, improve income, but ignores the female in the family and social gender position."

Do not see these problems, not to the rural women as the target, to further reflect on the policy of poverty alleviation, and to expand the scope of protection from the material and spiritual level, and thus to reduce the burden of female mothers, to enable women to recognize their situation and to have enough groups to support, then, even if the income exceeds the poverty line, The tragedy still happens. (Recommended reading: sex observation: After dad went to where, why "Mother is Superman"? )