China's ethic minority household that still has customs of polyandry. They all look happy and harmonious./ Source from search engine Baidu

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By Hong Soon-do, Beijing correspondent, AsiaToday - A Chinese professor has sparked controversy by suggesting women should be allowed to have multiple husbands to solve China's gender imbalance. While many people disagree with the proposal, some are in favor of polyandry.

According to China's state-media outlets on Sunday, the controversy was driven by Xie Zuoshi (49), a professor at Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics. He caused a storm in the Chinese media by saying poor men who cannot find wives should get one wife to share between themselves as a solution to the country's demographic crisis.

However, his argument may look quite realistic. In China, there are too many bachelors. Single men in their prime will still number 30-35 million until 2020, at which the gender ratio will be severely imbalanced. If the 30 million extra single men cannot find women, sex crimes and prostitution might be rampant as side effects.

However, polyandry could slash these side effects. According to Prof. Xie, there are already examples of brothers of the same family sharing one life in some rural areas in China, and they live happily together. Of course, they share children.

Of course, many people are against his argument. "It's too male-oriented thinking," said one netizen. "If a man can't find a wife, he shouldn’t get married. Women are not animals that give birth," said another netizen. In particular, those women who becomes in their best age to marry around 2020 and their parents criticize the argument severely.

Of course, there is no potential for the argument to become a reality. In fact, the act of bigamy is considered illegal in China with severe punishments for violators. Nevertheless, the reason why professor Xie's argument is receiving much support by some supporters seems to be because of the country's gender imbalance.