China has come to the stage that, when a couple fights, one should not assume the woman is naturally the sympathetic party. The dynamics of each family is unique. But the suggestion that a man taking up housework is not manly is so ludicrous it can only be treated as a joke. And I say this with total acknowledgment of gender differences in professions. For example, as a general rule, women tend to excel in the positions of kindergarten teachers or hospital nurses. But that does not mean a man cannot be as good as his female peers if he is so disposed. Conversely, there are very few female truck drivers, but if a woman takes to it, there is no reason why she cannot be just as good.

There will no doubt be some who strongly oppose my argument. I'm not of the opinion that a country's truck drivers or kindergarten teachers have to reflect the gender ratio of the whole country so that men and women can be proven equal. But I believe there should be no barriers for either sex to enter into professions they are qualified for on the basis of merit. Sure, toiling away with home routine is not a profession - unless it is for someone else's household.

Lin can say he is free from the drudgery because he can afford outside help or he has a wife or other family members who do not treat it as drudgery. He can even argue from an economic point of view that his time can yield a better financial payoff than whoever is responsible for the grunt work. But to hint that he is above it because of his gender is simply condescending. To extrapolate from his logic, someone sweating in a truck or on a construction site can laugh at him, a man sitting at a desk all day long, for being a sissy.