For many years, much attention has rightly been dedicated to the abysmal fertility rates in Japan, where there are veritably more elderly than children, and the technological powerhouse has been shrinking in size as dating, marriage, and family rates fall well below replacement levels. Similar comments have been made about all of Europe and Russia, which is suffering from similar problems.
But what is not talked about is China or Korea. The Chinese have received attention because of their infamous “one-child” policy that even though it has been eliminated, still is practiced by many people, and in combination with sex-selective abortions has created a significant imbalance in favor of men over women, leading to a lot of men fighting for a small pool of women. However, the actual state of affairs “on the ground” is seldom discussed.
According to recent reports, China is experiencing a massive crash in marriage, dating, and family life as younger Chinese are pursuing careers and money over family and in place of relationships, “virtual relationships” by talking to robots and apps as though they were a real person
China’s marriage rate — the number of marriages per year — has been in decline over the last five years. Last year it reached 7.2 per 1,000 people, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
Once their basic needs are guaranteed, more women are looking to satisfy their need for “emotional and self-fulfilment,” says Lake.
Although they are materially better off, the lives of many young urban women are “isolating”, says Tan.
Most have spent their teenage years studying for the country’s rigorous university entrance exams, at the cost of developing relationships outside of school.
Buying virtual boyfriends “is their chance to experiment with love and relationships,” he says.
For Robin and Lisa, virtual companions are appealing because the relationship was convenient.
“If I have serious psychological stress, this could make some people think I’m being fussy,” said Robin.
“But because I’m giving (the virtual companions) money, they have to reassure me.” (source)
Korea is even worse, and women there are not just delaying, but outright rejecting marriage and family.
A growing number of South Korean women are banding together to reject rigid patriarchal norms and vowing never to wed, have children or even date and have sex.
“I’ve always felt that as a woman there are more disadvantages than advantages to being married,” said Lee, a 40-something professional who lives with her dog near Seoul.
Now she has gone even further, embracing the nation’s radical feminist movement called 4B, from the “four nos”: no dating, no sex, no marriage and no child-rearing. (source)
I have written about the crash in fertility rates around the world and the devastating impact this will have on the industrialized and so-called “civilized” nations of the world. The US Total Fertility Rate (TFR) varies by ethnicity, but generally right now sits between 1.66 and 1.76. Russia is a 1.61, but skewed significantly in favor of the Turkic, Tajik, and Caucasian Muslim peoples due to migration and the fact that they have children as opposed to the native Slavic Russian women. However, when one looks at the Chinese, Japanese, and South Koreans, all comparatively more homogenous populations, one can see that the TFR rates are respectively 1.6, 1.42, and 1.27. Ironically, it is North Korea that has the highest fertility rate out of all of them at 1.94.
The future of a nation can be measured by her children. If a nation produces children, they do not “waste space”, but instead take up the work of a society and build it. Many times, if the work is not good or there are other issues, these people will go around the world to seek their fortunes. The Spanish, Portuguese, French, Dutch, English, Russians, and Turks did not build great empires by refusing to reproduce, but rather had children who then went out and conquered and settled the lands they went to. Many of them mixed with other people who migrated, or sometimes with the natives, and from this there came new families, cultures, and social growth and eventually harmony.
This is the story of many nations. The nation of Portugal was born by the union of English, Dutch, and Danish Crusader knights with coastal Iberian and Arab women following the establishement of Portugal during the Second Crusade in 1148. Alexander the Great “hellenized” the lands from Macedonia to Uzbekistan through his marriages and conquests and those of the Greeks who settled in those lands. Mongolia spread her culture from Japan to China and all the way to Poland and Egypt by way of the Mongol conquests. The spread of Turkish culture from Morocco to Pakistan came by way of the Ottomans. Even in Africa, it was population expansions in the Cameroon-Congo area that resulted in the Bantu migrations to all parts of southern Africa.
There is a direct relationship between population and political power, and is a reason why eugenics is so popular with many very wealthy people throughout history, because while many wealthy will not have children or only a few, poor people will freely have children, and the children pose a direct threat to the political leadership. Even in the US today, while fertility has fallen across all demographics, it is only the Hispanic bloc that has managed to maintain fertility rates at those above replacement. Likewise, one can see the rapid transformation of American culture through influence from Central and South America.
There is no “side” to take in this argument because the fact is that the changes in American culture- like anywhere else in the world -are a result of families choosing or refusing to reproduce as the Bible has commanded.
I have said before that one of the greatest crises the 21st century will see is going to be the mass unemployment of people around the world due to technological changes. To this, looking at these numbers in east Asia that suggest a massive population drop coming in the future, and in combination with what is already happening in the Western world along with the warning about the “disappearance of nations” in the Fatima prophecies, there is a second crisis of the 21st century that has not shown yet but will show, which will be the massive re-aligning of national, cultural, and ethnic identities as due to the refusal to reproduce, the mixing of peoples at levels never before seen, and the high chance of a serious war, there will be many cultures that may decline to the point of ceasing to exist, or will have to change so much they will no longer be recognizable in their future form.
Marriage, families, and children are all good things. No machine can substitute for them, and one can say that a great many of the problems facing the world today have come from their decline.