「剩女」門檻定在27歲 招大齡女不滿

China has upset its young female population by labelling those who fail to marry by the time they are 27 as 『left over woman』.

Growing number of educated, professional, urban females aged 27-30 have 『failed』 to find a husband.

『Pretty girls do not need a lot of education to marry into a rich and powerful family. But girls with an average or ugly appearance will find it difficult,』 reads one article titled 『Leftover Women Do Not Deserve Our Sympathy』.

The derogatory name has caused an outcry among millions of ambitious young and educated females who claim they have been thrown on the scrap heap - and who bemoan the low quality of suitors.

And census figures show that around one in five women aged 25-29 is unmarried.

The proportion of unmarried males that age is over a third higher - but Chinese men tend to 『marry down』 both in terms of age and educational attainment.

『There is an opinion that A-quality guys will find B-quality women, B-quality guys will find C-quality women, and C-quality men will find D-quality women,』 Huang Yuanyuan, a confident and single 29-year-old who works in a Beijing radio station, told the BBC.

『The people left are A-quality women and D-quality men,』 she said.

But the Chinese Bridget Joneses are fighting back, demanding the government ban the 『left over women』 term.

The All-China Federation of Women has recently dropped the label and now refers to "old" unmarried women - but the left over expression remains widely used elsewhere.中國將27歲還沒嫁出去的女孩稱作「剩女」，這一稱號讓這一女性群體很是沮喪。

在城市裡，越來越多受過良好教育的職業女性已經年過27，即將步入而立之年，卻還未能找到另一半。

一篇題為《剩女不值得同情》的文章寫道：「漂亮女孩不需要接受高等教育就能嫁入豪門。但這對於長相普通或醜陋的女孩卻很難。」

這一帶有貶義的稱號引來了數百萬受過教育的年輕女性的強烈抗議，這些野心勃勃的女性稱她們被扔到了垃圾堆里，悲嘆自己的追求者素質太差。

統計數據顯示，年齡在25歲到29歲之間的中國女性有五分之一是未婚。

這一年齡段的未婚男性比例高出三分之一，但是中國男性一般都會選擇年齡和學歷都比自己低的人結婚。

黃圓圓（音譯）今年29歲，在北京一家廣播電台工作，是個自信的單身女孩。她告訴英國廣播公司的記者說：「人們認為，A男（條件最好的男子）會找B女結婚，B男會找C女結婚，C男會找D女結婚。」

她說：「剩下的是A女（條件最好的女子）和D男（條件最差的男子）。」

不過，現在中國的布里吉特?瓊斯們正在進行反擊，要求政府禁止使用「剩女」一詞。

中國婦聯近日已經棄用「剩女」一詞，改用「大齡未婚女青年」，但是「剩女」一詞在其他地方還是被廣泛使用。