Be Fruitful and Multiply

In China, single women are under immense pressure to marry young or face the stigma that comes with being "leftover." Leftover Women follows three hopeful singles seeking to define love on their own terms.

China is the first country in the world to classify Internet addiction as a clinical disorder. Caught in the Net features a Beijing treatment center where Chinese teenagers are being "deprogrammed," and follows the story of three boys from the day they arrive at the center, to their three-month treatment period, and their long awaited return home. The film provides a microcosm of modern Chinese life and investigates one of the symptoms of the Internet age. It examines inter-generational pressures and the disregard of the human rights of minors who get caught in the net.

In China, over 69 million children have been left behind by their parents in their home villages while they migrate to big cities to survive. Qui Che (14) was left by his mother with his grandparents. He was 4 years old when his father tragically took his own life due to their financial situation. He grew up lonely with unbearable burdens to help his grandparents with farm work. He vents his difficulties by writing diaries that provide a glimpse into his inner world. His story reveals a personal journey filled with emotional, familial, and societal challenges, especially the absence of his mother, who returns home once in three years. The film is a microcosm of the universal migration tendencies around the world.

“Sheng nu” (“leftover women”) is a term used to describe single women who are 27 or older in China. Most of these women live in cities and lead rewarding professional lives. The term was coined in 2007 by a government organization responsible for the protection and promotion of women’s rights and policies. That same year, the Ministry of Education added “sheng nu” to the official lexicon.