The deeply ingrained cultural preference for male children in conjunction with China’s one child policy doesn’t only mean that millions of men, when reaching their grown-up age, will be hopeless to find spouses, it also means that fetal gender prediction is big business here.
Ultrasound has been officially banned for gender prediction, but a product called IntelliGender claims that it can do the trick too. The 780 yuan testing kit purportedly uses American technology that enables users to detect fetal gender by analyzing the hormone constitution in the mother’s urine six weeks into pregnancy. In addition, it claims to have the endorsement of American FDA.
While the effectiveness of the IntelliGender is at best unverified, it is said that there are other ways to determine the gender of your future baby. According to a theory, your ultrasound examiner will be likely to impart subtle hints. For example, “take care of the baby” means that you have a boy, while “boys and girls are all the same” implies that you’d better prepare for a girl.
The front page image shows a rescued crew member of the wrecked ship “Nasco Diamondo” returning to China for treatment. According to Xinhua, five of the 25 Chinese crew on board have been found with three alive and two dead, and the other 20 remain missing.
- Yangtse Evening Post (Chinese): Test the gender of your baby using IntelliGender