By Mei Fong. The operators assured users that they would be washed between rentals. But Ta Qu climaxed all too soon, and it was rapidly shut down by the authorities after the story went viral on the Chinese internet. Thanks to a long-held cultural preference for sons, coupled with over three decades of restrictive population planning policies, China is forecast to have over 30 million surplus men by This preference for boys has slowly dwindled, especially in the cities, but the country still faces a critical gap for the next few decades.
Chinese authorities cannot magic up a Canadian-sized population of women to be the wives, mothers, and caregivers the country desperately needs now.
This has led the nation in search of solutions, ranging from the improbable β proposals to revive wife-sharing β to the unspeakable, such as a rise in sex trafficking.
It has also led to a dramatic rise in the popularity of sex toys for lonely men. While reliable industrywide numbers are unavailable, sales of sex toys on online platforms such as Alibaba and Taobao surged an average of 50 percent year-on-year in the last five years, according to a report by Global Times.
Over 65 percent of sex toys sold online were to males between the ages of 18 to 29, according to the report. I was researching my book on the consequences of the one-child policy and was curious about where a nationwide absence of women might lead.
