A Social Structure Explanation to the Procreation Behavior of Chinese Farmers

To give a reasonable illustration to the procreation of Chinese farmers--why a male gender is much more preferred for the new born baby, The paper intends to analyze the theoretical and methodological shortcomings in terms of economic and cultural explanation used ever, and advocates an explanation as well from the perspective of social structure. The explanation is made through two variables: both the internal variable (pension system, family structure, and community structure) and the external variable (census register system, birth control policy). And in the end a proper explanation is made that the farmers' preference for male gender sometimes can improve the efficiency of the population management rather than something fulsome regarded for long in the past.