Nesse Boys

SONS AND OTHER VALUES

This picture of my two older brothers, Gerhard and Henry, reflects a value in Chinese society that has prevailed throughout past centuries and remains powerful today -- three sons and no daughters! In my early days in China, abandoned still living girl babies could be seen routinely along the moat outside the city wall. Today,the preponderance of male children is maintained by scanning the fetus and aborting a shocking percent of the females. The present arrangement has yielded a male/female ratio even above that which has prevailed historically in China. I will leave the social implications of this to those who are academically equipped to deal

wth them.

Those brought up in the Christian traditions and values felt horror at the low value placed on human life and, perhaps, reflected this in condescension that may have compromised their effectiveness in achieving change. I remember a flood in 1932 where the river immediately in front of our Sinyang mission compound had countless Chinese from upriver floating by clinging to logs, debris and even the straw roof of a house that I can still see in my mind. No local rescue efforts could be seen. A local citizen said something to the effect that there were too many people in China and, besides, they were not his relatives!

Values in China have progressed. It is a joy in these recent years to see that Chinese governmental agencies respond to disasters in ways no different from Western nations. This has gone so far that we even read of anti-government riots when the response to flood, earthquake and storm is deemed by the citizenry to be inadequate!