The latest issue of "Medicine and Society" magazine lately quoted a survey to probe into people's thinking on childbearing in China as saying that over 60% respondents still prefer to have a boy rather than a girl for an unbroken ancestral line. Without doubt, this underlies the tardy process for people to have a break from old ideas they have long embraced when speaking about childbearing in China.

Some experts in 1999 had undertaken a sample survey on sex propensity, childbearing age and matters like the number of children to be had by Chinese families in Henan, Anhui, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and some other provinces and areas in China. They found that 63.4% people are in the hope to have a boy instead of a girl, 37.2% want a boy to keep up ancestral line, and 42.8% desire to rear children to provide for their old age.

The survey even listed a greater number of respondents and a higher percentage of like views held by people in some economically underdeveloped areas in China. A smaller percentage, a cut number of people and less prejudices against sex were otherwise presented when having a higher education level and under a developed economy. So, demographers say birth control should not be regarded as a universal recipe in bringing about a change of people's old thinking on childbearing or a reduction of population. At present, more efforts should be made for an improved social security system, improved conditions for health care and advancements of science and education to push forward an all-round development of economy and social welfare to enable people to have better livelihood away from confines of a family life.

(People's Daily 01/11/01)