Shanghai men are often ridiculed by outsiders as not being "manly" these days.

This is how my colleague's husband reacted to a newspaper report that claimed 73 per cent of Shanghai's male white-collar workers are willing to be stay-at-home husbands.

The Shanghai-based Youth Daily last week released findings from a survey conducted among white collars aged 28 to 32 in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. It found that in the other three cities, the percentage of men willing to be homebound husbands is much lower.

Whether the survey results are reliable is questionable, especially the figure relating to Shanghai men.

However, the fact more Chinese men are willing to be stay-at-home husbands is encouraging.

It is encouraging because household chores, which women have borne for centuries without much reward, are no longer defined as female-only responsibilities.

It is encouraging because Chinese men, at least in big cities though perhaps in small numbers, are now opting to defy the traditional gender roles, and take care of the home.

It is also encouraging that newspapers have picked up the news and reported it as a changing social phenomenon.

However, I am sceptical about the figure - 73 per cent. Common sense says this country is still a male-dominated society and Shanghai is no exception.

Despite the not-so-optimistic reality, I do believe Shanghai men, probably more than men from anywhere else in this country, care more about their families. A popular saying insists, "Shanghai men are good at cooking."

The saying, generally pronounced with a derogatory tone by residents in other regions, is a convenient label for Shanghai men.

Even though best chefs are mostly men, when men are said to be good cooks at home, they are looked down by traditional minds. When men from Shanghai are described as competent cuisine preparers, they are open to ridicule, as if men in that particular city are good at nothing else.

However, to conclude that Shanghai men are not manly just because they like cooking at home, or because they care more about their families, or just because they are from Shanghai, is certainly an oversimplified statement.

How about Yao Ming? The giant man famous in today's basketball world is from Shanghai.

How about Liu Xiang? The man who brought China the 110-metre-hurdles gold medal at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games is also from Shanghai.

If sports is any yardstick to measure the masculine, perhaps these two are the best images of Chinese men.

The same social and cultural environment that has nurtured Yao and Liu has nurtured Shanghai men.

Therefore, to judge Shanghai men in the light of household chores is unfair at least.

One may call it prejudice against Shanghai men. Indeed, if home cooking contains gender implication, male cooks equal the opposite of manly.

Why can't men enjoy cooking? Leaving gender discrimination aside, why single out Shanghai men? There are abundant men who are good at cooking in other regions, too.

The oversimplified label that other people stamp on these gentlemen because of their place of residence is an issue in our society today. Shanghai men are but one interesting example.

The most striking example is the just-settled case in which Shenzhen police offended Henan Province residents.

Although the nation's first geographical discrimination case was peacefully resolved last month when the Shenzhen police apologized for offending the public, the incident offers much food for thought.

Shenzhen, in Southeast China, is the nation's newest metropolis. It was created in the 1980s and has only been around for two decades.

Most local residents are immigrants from all over the country and the city has the reputation of being a giant melting pot of various demographics. People see it as a new city friendly to outsiders and ready to accommodate different groups of people with diverse cultures and customs.

Unlike its neighbouring city Guangzhou where residents have to speak Cantonese to be recognized as locals, putonghua is a common tongue in Shenzhen.

It was in this city, supposedly free from geographical discrimination, that offended people from other regions triggered a major media outcry last year.

Last March, two large banners were put up under the city's Longgang District Police Substation outside a produce market. They read: "Resolutely strike at Henan racketeering gangs," and "Anyone with information on Henan gangs which leads to solving of the case will get a 500-yuan (US$61.7) reward."

The local police explained that in the first three months of 2005 the community police station had caught 17 suspects involved in five racketeering gangs, all from Henan Province.

The banners, though targeting Henan gangs, hurt local residents from Henan but also Henan natives all over the country. A suit was filed on April 15 in a local court in Zhengzhou of Henan Province, claiming the banners had infringed on the rights of the Henan people and damaged their reputation in general.

The case came to a peaceful end when the Shenzhen police apologized for offending natives of Henan Province eight months after the hearings began.

Henan people living in Shenzhen are a minority. So are people from other parts of the country. Social and cultural mixing in the past two decades has blurred the lines between immigrants and the natives there.

But Chinese are region-conscious and the deep-rooted local identity often leads blindly to regional superior complex.

A region poorer, or richer, than the rest of the country may invite discrimination from outside. So Henan people might be discriminated against. So might be Shanghai men and people all over the country.

People's superiority complex is a dangerous and addictive drug that does more harm in our efforts to build community harmony between separate, but equal, cultures in one place.

The issue of geographical discrimination may take a long time to disappear unless we make extra efforts to squarely face it.

(China Daily 02/25/2006 page4)