This three-quarter-long seminar series is a John E. Sawyer Seminar on the Comparative Study of Cultures funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The series examines factors contributing to, and implications of, the male-biased population sex ratio in contemporary China, contemporary India, and late imperial China. The significance of this topic is difficult to over-estimate. There are an estimated 60-100 million "missing" girls and women in Asia, and the Chinese government expects 50 million "surplus" men by 2050. Sex-selective abortions, which contribute significantly to this bias, are widely used in China, India, and even parts of the US with large Asian immigrant communities, including Santa Clara County, California.
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