Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Those Cheatin' Chinamen: As a follow-up to the last post, I calculated the percent of American men and women who have cheated on their spouse in the last year for various ethnic groups (from the GSS). First, you can see that the men are twice as likely as the women to stray--no surprise there. Men have higher rates in all ethnic groups except for Mexicans. But let's focus on comparing groups, not gender:

Percent of married men who cheated in the last year
1. Chinese 10.6
2. Blacks 9.8
3. Puerto Ricans 8.4
4. American Indians 7.9
5. Mexicans 5.9

U.S. average 4.5

6. Spain 4.5
6. Scots 4.5
8. Dutch 4.4
9. Filipinos 4.3
10. French 3.8
10. English/Welsh 3.8
12. Germans 3.7
13. Italians 3.3
14. Russians 3.2
15. Irish 2.9
15. Swedes 2.9
17. Czechs 2.2
18. French Canadians 1.5

So this basically stacks up as white vs. non-whites, with the non-whites having hig rates of infidelity. The exception to this is the Filipinos who fall below the national average. And I thought the Chinese were supposed to have low sex drives! But notice how none of the Chinese women cheated:


Percent of married women who cheated in the last year
1. Mexicans 7.6
2. Puerto Ricans 6.1
3. American Indians 4.1
4. Blacks 3.0
5. Irish 2.8

U.S. average 2.3

6. Italians 2.3
6. French 2.3
6. Germans 2.3
9. Filipinos 2.2
10. Spain 2.1
11. English/Welsh 1.5
12. Dutch 1.4
13. Russians 1.2
13. Scots 1.2
15. Swedes 0.0
15. Chinese 0.0
15. Czechs 0.0
15. French Canadians 0.0

Other men and women have similar rankings, but Chinese women are at the bottom while the men rank first. Filipinos are again below the average, and Irish women are above it, but otherwise we see the same pattern of more cheating among non-whites, less among whites. White racism must drive them to it.

12 comments:

  1. Anonymous11:30 AM

    Surprised about those Chinese men. I wonder who they are cheating with? Obviously not married Chinese women.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous12:00 PM

    Chinese men like to go to hostess bars with their collegues, just like the Japanese. Sometimes they even have sex with the hostesess but most often they do not. This is the "mizu-shobai" (water trade) industry that exists in Japan, Korea, and greater China. The wives grudgingly accept this, because they, not the husbands, control the family finances and make sure that no money actually gets spent on these women.

    There was a serious proposal in the Taiwan parliment several years ago to require that Taiwan men who were married must get a vasectomy before becoming an expat in mainland China. You see, the women knew that the men were going to screw around in China (because this is cheap and easy to do in Shanghai on a Taiwan expat salary). The Taiwanese housewives want to make sure that their men do not impregnate any women from the mainland, which would then lead to demands for child support on the part of the family finances.

    Also, married Chinese women also screw around (as do Korean and Japanese). They are simply very descrete about it, which is why they are not about to answer any survey about it in the affirmative.

    The "orientals" (Japanese, Koreans, and Chinese) can get away with having "loose" sexual morals and yet have an economically productive society because they have lower libido and their behavior is less socio-biologically driven as compared to the "southern" world people.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I think the GSS is only for Americans, not Chinese in China, or Japanese in Japan.

    But I think the same reason has to be at work here in the US -- we all know (and interracial marriage rates show) that NE Asian men are the least desirable, so who's taking these wayward Chinese men? Would have to be "escorts" or something.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous5:12 PM

    There is no way people are honest in answering this question

    ReplyDelete
  5. Russ: You may have a point, but I will say that survey research has shown that people are surprisingly willing to confess bad behaviors if they are confident that it will remain anonymous.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous11:58 AM

    Maybe Chinese men think everyone else is fooling around and they don't want to apear out of step?

    Asian women have told me that one of the reasons they like "white" guys is that Asian men don't treat them well.

    I thought that was interesting at the time, as most of the white guys I know are not very "romantic," frankly. But perhaps this sheds some light on the situation.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous5:20 AM

    for a while i was working with a number of chinese immigrants, mostly beijingren and a few hkers and had the opportunity to learn a bit about their culture. all were male except for one beijingren and she had divorced her husband in china due to his infidelity. another guy had lost his wife in china after she discovered the existence of his mistresses. in the u.s. he remarried but continued in his philandering ways in spite of the past consequences and a brutal 7 day work week (only major holidays off!). according to them maintaining a mistress is simply the natural order of things for chinese men with the financial ability.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Well, this proves one thing. French Canadian married women lie on surveys.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous2:42 AM

    It also depends to some extent on how you define cheating.

    P.S. I like how you have a seperate group for les Québécois on GSS surveys in America.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous5:38 PM

    Kurt says:


    Chinese men like to go to hostess bars with their collegues, just like the Japanese. Sometimes they even have sex with the hostesess but most often they do not. This is the "mizu-shobai" (water trade) industry that exists in Japan, Korea, and greater China. The wives grudgingly accept this, because they, not the husbands, control the family finances and make sure that no money actually gets spent on these women.


    How much actual experience do you have with Chinese people from China and HK?

    My forty years experience with living with Chinese people (in a non-Chinese country), and 24 years of marriage to a Hong Kong Chinese person plus my experience with one of her ShangHai relatives who I sponsored to migrate to a Western country, suggests that you have overstated your case and don't actually know them that well.

    However, I will acknowledge that my wife did subtly try to track my spending by trying to analyse all spending and reconcile it with amounts in the bank. I just refused to do that.

    Of course I have never strayed, either.

    With respect to a comment that Chinese females state that Western males treat them better, I have heard that comment from a number of Chinese females, including some who were once married to a Chinese male.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous1:44 PM

    Does this data point to asymetric power dynamic in chinese-american households. If men in those households have disproportionate economic power combined with better post marital opportunities should their behavior end in divorce they will be more likely to cheat.

    ReplyDelete

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