THE "LEFT-OVER" MEN in rural areas who remain unmarried in their 30s, will only find a partner when their livelihoods improve, said Gao Chunfang, president of a hospital in Jinan, East China's Shandong province and a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee. Rednet.cn said on Thursday:

Like it or not, whether an adult male in remote and underdeveloped regions can get married largely depends on his financial status. In other words, a man who can afford a traditionally extravagant wedding, which often involves a costly dowry for his would-be bride, is more likely to get married in rural China than those who cannot.

In fact, that most "left-over" men are unable to get a wife in their 30s even 40s, has a lot to do with their financial situation, not any physical defects. It will take more than basic infrastructure, such as roads and clean water, to help them start a family.

True, many once-inward looking villages have managed to gain access to the Internet and e-commerce, but that does not make a difference in the lives of the local bachelors. The younger males may pointlessly spend their time chatting online or playing cards, while the older ones may prefer to stay under everyone's radar and keep quiet as usual.

Some rural women tend to judge a potential partner not only by his appearance, height, and wealth, but also his skills and whether he has the ambition to further improve his life (and thus theirs). That explains why some rural men with academic degrees are less popular as partners than those able to make a living through their practical skills.

Yet, for many rural men accumulating personal wealth can take time. That an increasing number of them crave more money so they can get married, to some extent, is good news to the country's ongoing targeted poverty-alleviation campaign.

Traditionally, bachelors in the countryside are unlikely to leave home until they get married or have children, which makes them a long-term and reliable labor resource that can contribute to local growth if properly assisted.