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Hello.

Somewhere, somewhere in one-upmanship I think it is,

Stephen Potter suggests a suitable ploy for when one's faced by someone displaying a surfeit of knowledge.

One simply leans back, nods, and says quietly,

oh yes indeed, but not in the South.

Well, it strikes me that a rather more modern way to gain conversational ascendancy might be to say,

yes indeed, but not in China. Consider gender equality.

I see that women everywhere are now gaining more control over their lives?

Yes indeed, but thanks to a new book called Leftover Women, I now know that China is one place where this process may be going into reverse.

Indeed, the book's subtitle is The Resurgence of Gender Inequality in China.

But how could this be so?

Surely the relative lack of women in China as a result of the one child

policy coupled with selective abortion, a gender imbalance which means that by

...