Young Chinese women are committing suicide at a terrifying rate - here's why

Chinese women in rural regions lack support and can be 'leftover'
Chinese women in rural regions lack support and can be 'leftover' Credit: SK-II

For a long time, rural life in China was grim for women. They were married early, isolated and denied the same level of education as boys. Even today, many rural women are treated like second class citizens by their own family, subordinate to their fathers, brothers and  - once married - their husband and mother-in-law. Many are left with mental health issues - but little or no support or  help in dealing with them.

The consequences are plain to see. China is the only country in the world where the female suicide rate is higher than the male. Experts differ on the exact number - but estimates say that between 25 and 40 per cent more women kill themselves each year than men. In the UK, three quarters of all suicides are by men.

China accounts for 26 per cent of the world's suicides. According to the World Bank and the World Health Organisation, the country saw approximately 500 by women per day in 2009. That's 182,500 a year. If suicide has continued at that rate since those statistics were published, that means more than 1.2 million Chinese women have taken their own lives in the past seven years.

And in rural areas, the number is four to five times higher compared to that in urban areas – an indication of how much bleaker life is in traditional farming communities.

The death of a rural family of six in Gansu province last month, reignited debate about poverty and female suicide in China.

Gansu province is a sparse and economically backwards region in northwest China. According to police, Yang Gailan, aged 28, killed her children, three girls and a boy, all under the age of seven, by poisoning them with agricultural chemicals and attacking them using an axe. She then poisoned herself.

Yang's husband, who worked in the city, also committed suicide a week later.

Little is known about Yang Gailan’s mental state, but the tragic deaths were clearly an act of desperation. A case review has indicted six local government officials for neglecting their responsibility to the family; pictures published by news agencies show a mud pile stove and kitchen, and it has been reported that they didn't even have basic medical insurance. They were neglected financially and emotionally. The availability of agricultural chemicals is also one of the reasons why 96 per cent of rural suicides in 2004 involved them. 

It's clear the difference between the countryside and city in China remains vast.

This month, the Beijing government is taking steps to reduce that gap. It has announced a five-year plan to scrap the distrinction between rural and urban residents on China’s residence permits (or hukou), allowing everyone to qualify for the same social benefits. Rapid urbanisation is also physically knocking down the divide. But its fast pace is also being blamed for displacing rural communities. In China’s meteoric socioeconomic rise, many people are being left behind.

In the recent past, family suicide cases were "not rare", says Xie Lihua, founder of the Cultural Development Center for Rural Women.

In countryside communities, money can be tight and traditions are often strictly adhered to. Women become brides earlier than in cities and the notion of marrying "into” a family is taken literally, with newlyweds often living with their in-laws. Escape is not easy; a popular saying is that married women are like “poured out water” to her birth family - given away and never able to make it back into the nest – or bucket at that.

Married women may have to adhere to their new family's rules, often resulting in tension. Divorce is much rarer than in cities. "Going back to live at their mother's home is very embarrassing for a woman's family," explains Xie Lihua.

And if you're unmarried by 30? Don't even think about it. Little wonder, perhaps, that rural young women aged 15–34 are at the highest risk of suicide in China. 

Suicide is also perceived differently in China, compared to western cultures.

While, to us, they seem like brutal acts of murder, in rural Chinese communities killing one’s children can be based on the idea of carrying worldly possessions forward into the afterlife, explains Xie. It may equally be down to the belief that it's better to take them than leave them behind in a life of misery.

The act is also much more impulsive. “Suicide is seen as the way to solve problems in China”, adds Xie, who says it is often used to make a statement or prove innocence in family conflicts. In the UK, suicides occur after longer, drawn out episodes of depression: over 72 percent of those who kill themselves have sought help from a GP or health professional in the previous year.

There is, however, some evidence that women’s suicide rates in China are falling - and fast. In the past, married rural women were often isolated to their husband’s family circle and often had little space to vent frustration. Today, around 50 per cent of labour migrant workers in China’s cities are women; and even in the countryside, they are more socially and professionally active. Over 28 per cent of internet users in China are from rural areas - and rural women are helping prop up e-commerce by making and selling goods online. Family sizes are also  smaller, due to the one-child policy, reducing the burden of child rearing and providing more time for women to engage in other affairs, or go out to work.

These factors are having a significant impact on the suicide rate. Independent research in this area remains patchy, but based on national data, experts agree that decreasing numbers of rural women under 35 are being driven to kill themselves. 

Tragically, for women like Yang Gailan and her family these changes are too little, too late.