Chinese Smoking After (By) Sex
Amazing statistics on smoking by gender over at the China Game blog in a post entitled, "Tobacco in China (Part 1): Real Men Smoke." According to a World Health Organization (WHO) 1997 study, 63% of Chinese men smoke, but only 4% of Chinese women do.
There has to be social and economic significance to these widely disparate numbers, but I am at a loss as to what it is.
Readers?
Comments (18)
Read through and enter the discussion by using the form at the endnanheyangrouchuan - October 29, 2007 10:11 PM
The need to appear cool starts it and maintains it for a while...then the nicotine addiction and plain stubborness keep it going.
Law Office of Todd L. Platek - October 29, 2007 10:22 PM
Girls have more sense than to throw good money away on an addiction more useless than endless shopping. Right, Shopgirl?
William Lewis - October 29, 2007 10:38 PM
The print version of this article elaborates on this and suggests that women tend to take up the habit as men quit. In the West it appears that women began to take up smoking as men quit with increases in gender equality. This could have possibly been the result of more women finding a way to deal with the stress of greater responsibility in the work place and/or a targeted advertising campaign aimed at bringing the other half of the population into the market. I asked the Chinese women I worked with whether they smoked and the typical response was drawing back the chin, shaking the head, repeatedly saying no, and occasionally scrunching the nose.
David Li - October 29, 2007 11:43 PM
We like to make analogy of Japan and China here. Women smoking was almost taboo in Japanese society during the 70s until the chain smoking salarymen reaches 90% of the male adult. Then Nippon Tobacco embarked a major marketing and turn the society around on women smoking. I think over 50% of women smoke in Japan now.
China Law Blog - October 29, 2007 11:50 PM
nh,
So only Chinese men want to look cool?
China Law Blog - October 29, 2007 11:51 PM
Todd Platek,
You may very well be right. Does the male/female ratio in China play a role here?
Shopgirl?
China Law Blog - October 29, 2007 11:52 PM
William Lewis,
Unfortunately, your Economist link did not work. I would like to have seen that because what you say makes sense.
China Law Blog - October 29, 2007 11:53 PM
David Li,
According to The China Game (I have been unable to find the WHO's underlying report), only 15% of Japanese women smoked in 1997, as compared with over 50% of Japanese men.
Pat - October 30, 2007 12:21 AM
One may take into account the business/friend greeting by men to offer a cigarette. My wife, who is Chinese, says that only bad girls smoked when she grew up (she's 35 now and, actually, she smokes).
63% might help take care of that one child gender imbalance, if only in the distant future. But I also think that the government has a role in that they presently get lots of taxes, while discounting the future health costs. Kinda like the whole growth/environment problems that are so prevalent now in the press.
David Li - October 30, 2007 9:23 AM
CLB,
15% looks on the low side for me but my number may not be up to date. I remember this from a while ago when Philip Morris' contract with Nippon Tobacco was expiring and would not be renewed. Marlboro was accounted for some 50% of Nippon Tobacco's sales and most profit. The article was talking about Nippon Tobacco's effort to introduce more female brands trying to make up the difference and how Nippon Tobacco did it the first time back in the 70s while they ran out of growth in the male market. The marketing was riding on the back of feminist movement and smoking was a sign of being equal to men.
Here is an article of NY Times from 1995 citing 20% Japanese women smoke (believed to the real number to be much higher) and 50% in Tokyo.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CEFD8103AF93AA25754C0A963958260
I doubt the number would be lower today because tobacco advertising is everywhere in Japan and there is clash of two titans: Philip Morris vs Nippon Tobacco at work. When I was there in March, there were a lot new cigarettes on the market.
Paul M - October 30, 2007 9:56 AM
The table data came from "World Health Organization. Tobacco or Health: A Global Status Report. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization; 1997."
nanheyangrouchuan - October 30, 2007 10:02 AM
@ CLB;
Men have to put on more of a show than women, we are the ones with two brains, and it doesn't help with China's highly skewed gender ratio. Women are more likely to smoke to stay thin.
Paul M - October 30, 2007 10:19 AM
Someone commented at TCG.com yesterday about the male/female imbalance brought about by China's one-child policy. Smoking-related deaths would likely affect men only beyond the age at which people traditionally marry. Then again, women in China do often marry older men.
jms - October 30, 2007 11:10 AM
Hi China Law Blog, I may have accidentally submitted a comment while in the middle of typing it. Anyhow, here is the complete comment:
Chinese women smokers are typically viewed as women with either a wild streak or loose morals. Chinese men smokers, on the other hand, seem to view smoking as a macho thing to do, along with binge drinking baiju. Smoking was once seen as glamorous in the states. But with all the anti-smoking campaign these days, smokers are viewed in a negative light in the states. The Chinese government should do some serious anti-smoking campaigns. With its rapidly aging population, smoking related health care could impose a severe burden on its healthcare system.
Jonathan - October 30, 2007 8:18 PM
As we all know, smoking is part of the "culture" here, as an example: in many areas when a couple gets married they need to give cigarettes to the guests. There are many other ceremonies either public or private that involve the cancer stick.
Rene - October 31, 2007 2:18 PM
I've talked to a number of Chinese students about this disparity and according to them it comes down to what some commenters have already said. There's a double standard whereby men smoking is cool and women smoking are "bad." Of course it's hard to say if that's a cause or an effect, but that's the general perception.
Nick - November 2, 2007 2:10 AM
I had always been led to believe by my Chinese friends that in modern Chinese culture the only women who smoke are prostitutes. That is clearly changing dramatically: many respectable women can now be seen openly smoking, but the ingrained cultural perception and conditioning remains. Smoking, just like sex, are purely masculine pleasures and only a certain type of woman participates in either.
Jim - November 5, 2007 8:43 PM
Had dinner a few nights ago with a Chinese friend who told me she looks down on women who smoke because of the potential health consequences for their future children.