Guy talk

Many people agree that boys need to toughen up, tap into that male energy and are in need of strong male role models in a world of newly assertive women.

But not much is done about recognizing a passage from boyhood to manhood. In fact, it seems to be missing, an artifact of early times.

Shi Qi, a 26-year-old engineer, says the only person who ever talked to him about being a man was not his father but his Chinese teacher in high school - and that only happened once.

"I remember he gave us a 'man-talk.' He dismissed the girls and told us about becoming a man. He said we were at the turning point from boyhood to manhood and we had to get ready both physically and mentally," Shi recalls.

"We were told to be gentlemen to the girls, to take responsibility for parents and family and other things."

He says he didn't pay much attention at the time. "But when we entered the real world, it was much tougher than our teacher told us in high school.

"Actually, it was already late, and one lesson was far from enough."

When they leave school many young men are unprepared for fierce job competition and ambitious and assertive girls are already in the lead.

"Girls study harder because they know they have to be far better than their male rivals to get good jobs," author Sun observes. "China is still a male-dominated country and boys do have more opportunities than girls."

The most urgent task, according to the authors, is to give boys a better start and change the education system in fundamental ways that benefits both boys and girls.

"Real fairness would give enough growing space to both boys and girls," says author Li.

"And let them develop true to their nature," he adds.

Boys by a few of the numbers

From primary school through university, the gender gap is significant and persistent. Here are a few findings:

A poll cited by the authors among 301 middle school teachers in Guangdong Province indicates that girls dominate the top 20 percent of most classes and most class leaders are girls.

From 1999 to 2008 in the national college entrance exam, the highest score holders, or zhuangyuan, were overwhelmingly girls. Statistics show the ratio of boy zhuangyuan slid from 66.2 percent in 1999 to 39.7 percent in 2008, while the proportion of girls jumped from 33.8 percent to the 60.3 percent in the same period.

Another survey conducted among 6,539 students from 26 high schools in Chongqing City shows that boys' average score is 624.27, while girls' is 632.28.

National college statistics show that in 1995 female enrollment accounted for only 34.5 percent, while in 2007 the figure jumped to almost 50 percent.

Among 50,000 winners of the national scholarship in the past two years, only 17,367 are boys.