Bare Branches describes the gender imbalance in China and India.

In their academic work, Bare Branches: The Security Implications of Asia's Surplus Male Population, Valerie Hudson and Andrea den Boer describe the causes of the high sex ratio in China and India, its effects and future implications. They also suggest policy options and evaluate their merits.

Sex ratio is the ratio of men to women. The average sex ratio worldwide is 105 (105 men for every 100 women). China and India have higher than average sex ratios that have lead to a large surplus of males on the order of millions in both societies.

The high sex ratio in China is driven by a long history of preference for sons over daughters to preserve the family name, provide agricultural labor and care for aging parents. The preference for sons is intensified by the one child policy that limits the number of children to one per family.

These cultural forces have resulted in sex selective abortions, infanticide and infant abandonment. Further, they have led to "bare branches" – unmarried males with a high incidence of substance abuse, gambling and violent crime. Typically these males are unemployed or underemployed, did not graduate from high school and lack a permanent residence. They tend to congregate in migrant bachelor subcultures.

Future implications are frightening. One possibility is a government unable to control large and violent bachelor subcultures. Another possibility is an increased recruitment into the military or police force – with propensities for violence that may be directed internally or towards neighboring countries.

In this reviewer's opinion, of the several policies that could help the gender imbalance, these seem to have the highest probability of success.

• the repeal of the one child policy
• government care of abandoned girls to adulthood
• government safety nets for the elderly to decrease financial reliance on sons
• policies that elevate the value of women

There seems to be a weakness however, in the ability of “policy” to affect “values”. Policy usually translates into propaganda. And propaganda has had limited success in changing thousands of years of cultural values.

Media, on the other hand, may have more success. The Little Girl tells the story of an abandoned baby girl in China. A "bare branch" adopts her and experiences the joys and trials of fatherhood.

Hundreds of thousands of infants are abandoned annually in China. The majority of these infants are girls. In 1997, the total number of Chinese infants adopted by American citizens was 3314. Clearly, adoption by foreign nationals is not a complete solution to the problem. Perhaps The Little Girl will be another piece of the puzzle that brings stability to the great nation of China. The Little Girl is available on Amazon.

I thank Valerie Hudson and Andrea den Boer for Bare Branches and for giving us an understanding of the importance of gender issues in China and India.