By Zou Hanru (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-08-03 07:10

In 30 years' time, there won't be enough men for women to marry in Hong Kong.

That's the projection by Hong Kong's Census and Statistics Department. Census figures suggested that in the three decades to come, the number of men for every 1,000 women would sharply come down from 912 in 2006 to 709 in 2036.

Moreover, the situation is going to be worst for those aged between 25 and 44. Even after assuming that the tens of thousands of foreign domestic helpers wouldn't vie with local women for males, there would only be 664 men for every 1,000 women in this age group, which is the golden age for marriage and child bearing. And there would be only 695 men for 1,000 women in the next group, aged 45-64.

The situation is further aggravated by the fact that more Hong Kong men are looking northward for brides. In 2006, about 28,000 Hong Kong men married mainland women, an increase of more than 80 percent over 2001, while only about 6,500 Hong Kong women married across the border last year.

The reason for this increasing asymmetry is not that Hong Kong mothers are giving birth to less baby boys. Nor are there more women migrating to the Special Administrative Region from the mainland than men. The trend, according to Commissioner for Census and Statistics Fung Hing-wang, was caused by the growing number of Hong Kong men working and residing on the mainland.

Being more adventurous and career-minded than females, Hong Kong men are more willing to be deployed away from the hometown or cross the border to seek jobs with promising prospects that the mainland's burgeoning economy is able to provide.

The professional and management skills of many Hongkongers have given them an edge in carving out their career there. The Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement that is designed to help Hong Kong professionals find business opportunities on the mainland has contributed in part to this northward thrust of Hong Kong men.

One may argue that it does not matter whether the gender balance is tipped since it is also a trend in Hong Kong, as well as in many other parts of the world, for men and women, especially women, to stay single. Government figures show that some 1.34 million Hong Kong women over the age of 15 are not married. That constitutes 43 per cent of the female local population.

But the fact that these women are not married does not mean they do not need a male partner. Some do not want to be tied down legally by marriage. Some want a sex partner but do not want to live with them.

What Hong Kong ladies have to do is to look further north - there are some 650 million males on the other side of the border.

They can rest assured that education levels and financial conditions of the average mainland man are improving. According to some mainland economists, there are about 200 million people on the mainland satisfying the definition of "middle class" - those who earn between 60,000 to 500,000 yuan a year. And the number will surge to 350 million in 10 years.

It is, therefore, not too difficult for Hong Kong ladies to find their prince charming on the mainland if they do look a little harder.

In order to cash in on Hong Kong women's potential demand for mainland spouses, it might be time for those with entrepreneurial spirit on either side of the border to start investing heavily in the cross-border match-making business.

This strategy is in keeping with the inevitable trend of Hong Kong-mainland integration, though in a matrimonial, or carnal, sense.

E-mail: zouhr@chinadaily.com.hk

(China Daily 08/03/2007 page10)