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Leftover Women

Duration: 45 minutes

First broadcast: on BBC WORLD NEWS North AmericaLatest broadcast: on BBC WORLD NEWS Middle East

In China, unmarried women over the age of 27 are deemed "sheng nu" or "leftover". As an effect of the now-defunct one-child policy there are over 30 million more men than women, leaving single women under immense social pressures to marry or be rejected from society. Public dating contests, "marriage markets" where city sidewalks are lined with parents advertising their children's attributes, and government-sponsored matchmaking festivals are just some of the humiliating ordeals that single women face. This eye-opening documentary reveals what some women experience in their gruelling quest to find a husband, weighing the cost of family and society's approval against their own chances of happiness. Show less

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