The reading “Flame” deals with the idea of marriage. This is currently an issue in China because due to the one child policy many baby girls were aborted or given up for adoption creating a disparity between men and women in China. According to Statista, in 2018 there were 713 million men in China and 681 million women. This leaves a 31 million more men than women in China.This disparity leaves Chinese men in a predicament especially because of what we have learned about how important the family line is in China.This problem has led to a surge of sex trafficking in China. “The New York Times,” wrote an article about one woman’s experience being trafficked from Myanmar. Her story is not unique, and the article estimates that 21,000 women from Myanmar have been trafficked to China. The story “Flame” highlights the fact that this woman could not marry for love, and it also shows the importance of marriage in China and the emphasis placed on it. Although things have changed in China since this story was written, the issue has evolved. The same values that required Nimei to marry for economic reasons rather than love and the emphasis on family and ancestors have created a problem that is leading to the atrocities that are happening to these young women. It is easy to look at sex trafficking and minimize the problem and the scale of it. However, the problem is likely to continue as more and more young men want to marry and find that there are simply not enough Chinese women.
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